Lenovo opening up channel for feedback

Passing on the Baton 2 - Design - Lenovo Blogs

Head on over and (kindly) give them some feedback on what they're doing right, and what could be done better!

 

Some of us have been doing exactly that for years now with absolutely nothing to show for it.

Don't hold your breath.

 

Thanks for the hint. I think its definitely worth to give them the feedback they need. After all, ThinkPads are purely customer-driven.

 

ROTFL

90% of the folks who gave their feedback on the "new and improved" keyboard here would beg to differ...

Change Is Hard: Why You Should Give In to the New ThinkPad Keyboard - Products - Lenovo Blogs

 

Oh you mean you don't like the numpad on haswell 15"

 

Purely? As in "absolutely, totally, 100%, no BS"? Customer-driven? Who specifically? Give me 5 specific examples of Lenovo taking customers' feedback into concrete consideration, one for each consecutive year.

I wonder how you behave in real life. You sound like you know everything with absolute certainty, especially in relation to Lenovo. Maybe you should go out more often. Bier, Frischluft, echten Menschen...

If Lenovo is truly serious and honest about "customer feedback," they should consider PAYING for ideas from people like ajkula66.

 

The feedback Lenovo is looking for is how to increase market share and profitability. I wonder if Lenovo takes seriously the people who comment on things such as trackpoint and keyboard. The majority of people in the laptop market are used to trackpads and chiclet styled keyboards so this is what Lenovo will likely focus on (don't know for sure). They will focus on what they think will sell well and increase their margins.

But this channel might make some feel good about posting and letting out their feelings.

 

Well, the ThinkPad enthusiasts are not Lenovos only customer group for Thinkpads. They get their feedback from:
1. Big Companies
2. Focus Groups (their own market research)
3. Thinkpadders

Now, the companies and the focus groups are the most important for Lenovo, but the feedback from the ThinkPad-Fans is also important and taken into their considerations. Of course, thex won´t retourn to things like the old keyboard or dedicated TrackPoint buttons, but the feedback translates into their products in detail. For example, back in 2006 Lenovo took away the red stripes on the TrackPoint-buttons. They returned them 2009/2010, because the ThinkPad-Fans gave them their feedback. Or, more recently, they returned the F-key grouping on ThinkPad-keyboard, something many ThinkPad-Fans (also in your link) wanted. Or high-quality IPS screen, which can be found in the hole new lineup.

Sure, the most important feedback comes from the big companies. While the feedback from the ThinkPad-Fans maybe isn´t the most important for Lenovo, its not lost or wasted. The people should continue to tell them what they want (for example, an Caps-Lock indicator LED).

My guess is: Of course they take the feedback serious, but they won´t change back because of various reasons (you named one of them, of course Lenovo as a company wants to make money).

 

Most of these have dropped ThinkPads once the brand changed hands. They might have been proven to be correct in the long run, although I was amongst the people who were opposing such a move...

Which pretty much went along the lines of how to to turn a ThinkPad into a newer version of Black MacBook, at least on a more recent note...

Now that's an outright joke. I'd use a stronger term, but this forum is rated PG.

Applying lipstick to a pig comes to mind...and as for the screens - which I salute - if it were not for Macs starting to ship with IPS panels we would have seen none of that.

And my guess is that they couldn't care less, since the most of their profit is made on smart phones in China...and their profit margin on ThinkPads is ridiculously low to begin with...

 

After several hundred posts requesting the classic keyboard and trackpoint buttons, Lenovo will promptly ignore all of them and continue on their way.

 

Exactly.

Business as usual.

The only way we can get these (classic keyboard/proper trackpoint) back is to convince the new Apple management to apply them on the MacBooks, and then Lenovo will follow...:yes:

 

Well, maybe they lost many in America to Dell and HP. But not in Europe (mostly), and, even more important for Lenovo, not in Asia.

America is a difficult region for Lenovo as a chinese company.

Again, nonsense. A W540 has nearly nothing in common with a Macbook Pro Retina other than the fact that it has a chiclet keyboard (which is still very different from Apples version) and now a glass TrackPad with integrated buttons (which is also different, differen mechanism etc.). And maybe no latches, but thats something common around nearly all Notebooks today. Even the new HP Zbooks Workstations don´t have them anymore.

So, what about the F-key seperation? Or the texture of the TrackPad? Or thin display-bezels? These are more point where the feedback that ThinkPad-Fans gave them was important.

Yes, thats mostly right. But they still make more than enough money with ThinkPads (which is different from IBM).

 

So, the other side of what you're saying yourself is that they have a lot in common.

Once again, lipstick on a pig.

Neither you nor I know what's "more than enough" for Lenovo. I'm suspecting a "Wal-Mart strategy" here, and would be very surprised if I end up being wrong a decade from now...

 

No, these are just two points, which themselves are still different from Apples solutions (the keyboard has a different layout/different mechanisms/more travel/other materials/a different key-shape; the TrackPad also has a different mechanism, a different surface and more click-zones). To say "Look, ThinkPads and Macbooks both have chiclet keyboard and a clickpad, they are the same" is like saying "Look, a ThinkPad T500 and a Elitebook 6930p both have a non-chiclet keyboard and a normal TouchPad with dedicated TrackPoint and TouchPad buttons, they are the same". A W540 has much more things, which are different from a Macbook Pro, than it has in common with it.

Well, thats not my opinion. These are points that matter to many Notebook and ThinkPad users. If Lenovo still would have non-seperated F-keys, the old T400s-touchpad texture and thick and ugly display-bezels (like on the T420), many would have complained about it.

 

While our opinions may differ on whether ThinkPads are becoming more or less Macbook-like (I would say more), I think we can all agree that Lenovo hates us and doesn't care whether we think they are ruining their brand.

 

Nice try...however:

a) Lenovo could've gotten away without upsetting the long-time ThinkPad users if it were just for the island-style keyboard. The layout change is what got most of us to the boiling point. And the only reason for switching to a 6-row keyboard was that everyone else was doing it...

b) TrackPads/TouchPads have grown *huge* ever since Apple started enlarging theirs...

c) IPS screens came back not because oldtimers have cried to Lenovo year after year, not even when competition (Dell/HP) initially introduced them, but when Apple started applying them, along with all their other clones...

So yes, a brand of leadership turned into another brand of followers. By the time Lenovo's done redesigning the ThinkPad range in a year or two, not much will be left of them apart from the logo.

*Many* have complained about more important stuff and got absolutely nowhere...

 

THIS. They perfectly know what we want, and especially what we don't want, but they stil choose to go the Apple route.
Who cares about their marketing trickery.