Lenovo, Fujitsu, Toshiba Bolster Notebook Offerings With SMBs In Mind

Hoping to strengthen its SMB foothold, Lenovo Tuesday launched a new series of notebooks geared specifically to price-sensitive, services-starved SMB customers. Fujtsu Computer Systems was also busy with notebook announcements, adding six Centrino 2-based notebooks. Toshiba America Information Systems uveiled two new laptops outfitted with Centrino 2 with vPro.

Morrisville, N.C.-based Lenovo's new SL series of ThinkPads -- the SL300, SL400 and SL500 -- include high-speed mobile broadband, optional Blu-Ray DVD as part of its multimedia offerings, data recovery in its software inclusions and an optional service package that offers online backup and on-site warranty repair. In an briefing with Channelweb, company executives confirmed that 85 to 95 percent of the new notebooks will be sold through the channel.

"We've been selling ThinkPads to SMB for years, but this is a more focused offering. One of the most significant announcements is that services offering," said Charles Sune, Lenovo's worldwide segment manager for the ThinkPad SL series. "We've found in our research that these customers by and large don't have the benefit of having an IT staff. We want to be able to provide services to help those customers be successful, and later this year we're going to add more, with another suite of services. At the [small end] of the SMB segment, it's more cost efficient for them to do things on an as-needed basis as opposed to hiring someone full-time."

Sune cited North American, European and Asian focus groups and market research, including data from IDC forecasting that indicates SMB will comprise 31 percent of the worldwide notebook market by 2011 and says the number of notebooks in the U.S. will increase by more than 4 million in the space.

But the hot hand is pricing: the ThinkPad SL400 and SL500 both start at $799, and the SL300 starts at $899. Lenovo said it has garnered the most interest from channel partners so far based on those comfortable-looking figures.

"It's heavily motivated to address the needs of a very specific customer set," Sune added. "This tends to be a very price-sensitive end of the commercial segment -- there's a lot of focus around those $699 to $1,199 price cells. "

"It used to be that in order to get the high-end features -- e.g. built-in WWAN capability -- we would have to look at the T-series notebooks from Lenovo," said Kevin Oleksa, president of of Johnstown, Pa.-based solution provider Operational Technologies Services (OTS). "However, those notebooks were out of the price range of the small business owner. The SL series brings the features of a high-end notebook and couples it with a price that small and very small businesses can afford."

Lenovo has had a particularly busy 2008 as far as SMB initiatives go. In October 2007, the vendor kicked off Club Lenovo, a new rewards program for SMB partners that now boasts more than 5,300 in North America. According to a Lenovo spokesperson, the sales performance of those partners is 53 percent greater than partners who don't participate in the program.

"As far as OTS goes, we love the program," Oleksa said. "If you are a Lenovo business partner that is selling eligible Club Lenovo products and not taking advantage of Club Lenovo's program, then you are definitely missing the boat. The program is a no-brainer, home run for Lenovo."

"We haven't seen or used [the new Lenovo notebooks] yet, but we have no problem recommending their products," said Richard Nix, executive vice president at 4G Data Systems Inc., New York. "And Club Lenovo is definitely working well. They really are about channel relationships, and they have our trust."

Lenovo also used Tuesday's announcement to unveil six additional notebooks in four series: the ThinkPad R400, R500, T400, T500, X200 and W500. On the consumer side, the vendor also debuted an additional four notebooks -- the IdeaPad U330, IdeaPad Y430, IdeaPad Y530 and IdeaPad Y730 -- all based on Intel's Centrino 2 processors and coming in different colors, including Valencia orange and Crimson red.

The customizable looks and high-definition graphics recommendations both came from customer feedback, said Stephen DiFranco, vice president and general manager of Americas, Consumer. According to DiFranco -- last seen departing beleaguered AMD as VP of worldwide consumer channel sales -- those notebooks will be available through retail and e-tail partners starting this fall. Price points have not yet been disclosed.

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