tecosystems

IBM = BASF?

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Apparently I have some sort of fixation on old school commercials (see my entry here comparing Adam Bosworth to EF Hutton), but I can’t help thinking that IBM is sounding a lot like BASF, whose tagline (I have the same reaction as that poster, incidentally) is “We don’t make the things you buy, we make the things you buy better.”

They don’t do applications (my colleague might beg to differ in some areas, but that’s the claim, at least). They don’t do consumer products (and I wholeheartedly agree with my colleague here, SAVE THE THINKPAD!). Yes, they have products that sit in front of people – Notes/Workplace, for example – but most of their work is done behind the scenes.

Although BASF is undoubtedly a fine company, and IBM is not exactly doing poorly, I can’t help but think their aversion to touching end users might be costly at some point. There’s a reason so many small and medium businesses are eager to use Microsoft technologies, after all.

6 comments

  1. Just curious: how prevalent are ThinkPad's among the analyst community?

  2. very prevalent, i’d say. some of the bigger analyst houses have stringent procurement, and thus are on lower cost platforms like Dell. but more often than not when you’re at a table with a bunch of analysts and everyone gets out their machines, the majority will be thinkpads.

    i’ve used over the course of my career machines from Dell, Gateway, HP, IBM and Toshiba (no Apples, though), and IMO thinkpads are the best x86 notebooks available. haven’t used any of the boutique stuff like alienware either, so maybe they’re better. and we do no business with the Thinkpad division, and pay the same price as anyone else for them, in case anyone’s curious. i’ve never liked IBM’s desktops, but love the thinkpad.

    and given that my x23’s getting a bit long in the tooth, i’d been eyeing the x40. but now, i’m not so sure.

  3. Hope someone at IBM is considering the brand equity hit they’ll take if they abandon the ThinkPad franchise. ThinkPad’s are the business class of laptops. Millions of some pretty smart users will be pissed.

  4. I've always been a Mac guy (currently running an original series white G3 iBook). But I have had quite a bit of interaction with Thinkpads.

    My sister-in-law used to work in the TP division at IBM. (she's in servers now). So everytime she would visit I would always lust after her machine. She would be 'testing' a new model. Most of the time it was a T series totally tricked out. I would go to the online configuration tool and price it out…usually in excess of 6K. She said most of the guys in her division use X-series with the extra capacity battery, so they can work all day all over the campus without plugging in ever.

    One of the other jobs I do on the side is to help time triathlons and marathons with ChampionChip timing systems. All our laptops are R series machines and they take a beating and still work like a charm. In previous years the company would have Dells or Gateways. They would never last an entire season.

    But at last we'll have a TP in the house. Just ordered an R series for my wife for Christmas.

    It will be a sad day when the 'legendary' ThinkPad standard is gone. Perhaps I'll need to look at a Panasonic ToughBook?

  5. i agree. and there’s no real price for the free cachet IBM gains by having their hardware flashed around amongst the technical elite at conferences and meetings everywhere.

    not sure yet where i’ll turn when they’re gone. the Sony’s are nice and lightweight, but break down quickly from what i hear. heard good things about the Fujitsu lifebooks from some ex-colleagues, maybe that’s the route.

    apart from the form factor – ultralight – the two things i really need are good Linux support and excellent battery life.

  6. Cringely has an interesting take on the IBM PC sale to Lenovo, describing it as part of a Palmisano master plan to dethrone HP, Intel and a few others.
    http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20041209

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