ThinkPad maker Lenovo disputes poor sales comments

Lenovo has denied that customers are dissatisfied with changes to its ThinkPad notebook PC line.

The Financial Times reported that customers of the ThinkPad zSeries – a titanium-cased product that was the first non-black ThinkPad – had “not reacted well” to the design change. Lenovo began offering the ThinkPad after acquiring IBM’s PC business almost a year ago.

The FT quoted Lenovo chief executive Bill Amelio as saying, “We’ve had a lot of feedback. The CIOs that we deal with like to have this system the way it is, and by putting different colours or models in [sic] can create some angst.”

However, Lenovo said that it had received positive reactions to all ThinkPad introductions.

“Any report that says Lenovo is abandoning new product introduced in the past year is wrong. We have always been - and remain - committed to working very closely with our customers to ensure we deliver compelling and useful ThinkPad products and features that meet their needs,” the firm said in a statement.

“As a result, all of our ThinkPad product and feature introductions have been extremely well received by our customers, including the introduction of both versions of the Z series widescreen ThinkPad, which was the first ThinkPad to integrate high-speed EvDO wireless WAN for high-performance wireless networking.”