Leather-Bound ThinkPad Has Its Own Nerd

Written by Adam Gosling

Friday, 07 September 2007

Lenovo has celebrated the ThinkPad's 15th birthday with the release of an executive version of the popular corporate laptop. The pricey device not only comes with a leather-bound case, but includes a 36-month Executive Support Staff service and a US$5,000 price tag. The Reserve Edition notebook is only available in Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, UAE, the U.K. and the U.S. and is "designed for the world's most accomplished professionals," according to Craig Merrigan, vice president of Branding and Strategy, Lenovo. "While only 5,000 ThinkPads will offer ‘Reserve' status, this offering demonstrates Lenovo's leadership [of] the PC industry in delivering innovative design, technology, and services across all our offerings." A previously unseen level of personalized service and support begins with an Executive Welcome Service that includes an initial one-on-one setup call between the customer and their dedicated "Executive Support staff specialist". This support specialist helps ensure the computer is set up to accommodate the personal preferences of each individual user. The "Executive Support staff specialist" sticks with the customer throughout the lifecycle of the notebook PC to help get the PC up and running and then keep it that way. For ongoing support, each owner is provided concierge phone access to the Executive Support staff, with all calls answered within four rings in the owner's native language. Or the owner can press the ThinkVantage button on the keyboard and get a live electronic-chat connection to their support expert, who can also address needs through remote management of the computer as desired. If a specially-trained technician has to attend to fix your problem they will arrive at your location within four hours in 20 countries and will apply a bit of spit and polish conditioning the leather exterior before departing. If you lose your Reserve Edition ThinkPad, Lenovo will make sure a replacement machine is shipped to you overnight, free of charge. Each Reserve Edition ThinkPad is individually numbered and clad in hand-stitched, saddle-grade premium French leather. But the company says: "Not only is the ThinkPad Reserve Edition leather-clad, it's iron-clad, too". The ThinkPad Reserve Edition has the best ofLenovo's engineering including its Client Security Solution, a unique hardware-software solution that manages passwords and encryption keys, Full Disc Encryption drives that have the hardware-based encryption built-in to firmware on the drives. www.thinkpadreserve.com www.lenovo.com Related news items New Pearl Colours Coming -18/09/2007 First Windows 6 Palm In Australia -12/09/2007 Free iBurst Broadband In Sydney -16/08/2007 Fujitsu Announces LifeBook S6410 -24/06/2007 Nokia pumps up the volume with three new Bluetooth headsets -18/06/2007 Newer news items Dell Takes A Tablet -12/12/2007 Thin Clients Get Smarter, More Mobile -03/12/2007 Asus Gives Eee To Myer First -20/11/2007 Fujitsu's First LifeBook With Blu-ray -28/10/2007 Hybrid Drive Boosts Laptop's Skillset -10/10/2007 Older news items Semi-Rugged With Grunt -05/09/2007 HP Announces New Mobile PCs -03/09/2007 Pretty Paintjobs Delaying Dell Notebooks -27/08/2007 Fujitsu LifeBook - 12.1 inch; 11 hours; 1.53kg -21/08/2007 Linux On Lenovo Laptops -06/08/2007 Tag This Now: