The ThinkPad turns 20
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 2:00AM I use a ThinkPad for work and hate it with a passion, probably because it is underpowered for what it is expected to do. However, I can appreciate the legendary status it holds.
From The Verge- "In an effort to explain how the ThinkPad brand has sustained 20 years, a sale from IBM to Lenovo, and relentless competition from all sides, Lenovo design VP David Hill turned mostly to analogy. He likened the ThinkPad to jeans, Jeep, and the Porsche 911 — three things that have evolved over time without ever losing sight of their original statement or design. That's the idea behind the ThinkPad.
The ThinkPad line celebrates its 20th birthday today, and just as you probably still wear jeans and could draw a pretty accurate Jeep Wrangler if I asked you to, the ThinkPad has become the rare constant in the technology industry. Nearly everything around it has changed, but ThinkPad has always been the professional-grade black box. In honor of its anniversary, we look back at how the ThinkPad made it to 2012, and whether or not you'll still be using one in 2032."
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Reader Comments (2)
Many years ago, when I was a developer for one of Australia's financials, IBM Thinkpad was the platform of choice, and ended up being a laptop of choice for my wife and I at one point (partially helped by a relative who worked for IBM so I could get a staff discount), but we still have our Thinkpads, although not used as much as they used to be.
Not being fond of touchpads for pointer control, I preferred the little nub sticking up in the middle of the keyboard, if a mouse wasn't available.
Even now, I am using the external keyboard from my last Thinkpad. My sleek Logitech wireless keyboard just died, so I dragged this one out of storage to use until a new keyboard could be sourced, but quite frankly, I have always liked this keyboard, especially the programmable function buttons and the fact that it has a USB hub built-in for the mouse to plug into, rather than another cable snaking back to the PC.
While being under powered, there was also so much about it that was just so right too. I too loved the little nub sticking up - joystick like and found it much better than a touch pad.