strange lenovo thinkpad marketing

[flensr]

Ran across some strange lenovo marketing... Their youtube marketing channel had an intro to the T420s, which seemed pretty nice until the end. The guy showing the laptop was talking about the HD camera, the HD microphones, and the 16:9 HD screen format "just like your TV".

That's all great, but... Lenovo specifically excludes BD drives from their business class lineup. I asked a lenovo sales rep about this via chat, and he confirmed that Lenovo is intentionally keeping BD drives out of the thinkpads, even though they are marketing the entire laptop as one big HD capable machine. Camera, sound, screen format, all "HD". But no BD for the entire thinkpad line?

Makes no sense at all. Holding off my purchase until I can compare the i7 and discrete graphics T420s against the new portege lineup. The R700 replacement is on the street but it also is apparently i5 only for now, so it's just a waiting game. But I think the new portege will have a BD drive as an option, which would make it a superior computer to the T420s in terms of features available in a 13" form factor.

 

[fb02521]

i've run into the same thing with other components. only thing i can think of that justifies is bottom line profit--more $$$ to be made on machines they configure more cheaply and are able to sell at greater cost to less informed buyers. when all the best components are in one machine selling at reasonable price, the profit margin, if any, is probably fairly slim.

 

[chusteczka]

I like the Lenovo Thinkpad features but it does seem their marketing has gone crazy these last few months. Prices are all over the place, changing daily in wide swings that can easily reach a $150 difference in a day. The wide swings in their prices are causing me to lose faith in their business.

I had been watching the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge for the 14" screen with AMD cpu from November and prices swung from $800 down to $480 at one point in December. Then in February, I saw the price drop to $450 for a single day and I purchased. The next day, the price returned to $650. I got lucky but tend not to trust companies with such large price swings. It would be really upsetting to to purchase one day and see the price drop by $200 the next day.