Status of the Retro ThinkPad project ?

[Puppy]

After series of blog posts there is dead silence. A simple "We're still working on it" message to your customers wouldn't hurt.

[Puppy]

Still silence so lets start to speculate

• (60%) the project has been cancelled because it is going against current Lenovo vision to produce low components cost generic laptops with ThinkPad sticker
• (30%) the project continues but a lot of quality and feature compromises has been applied so it is far from the original idea
• (10%) the project will have expected outcome later in 2017

[goretsky Community Moderator]

Hello,

I think it's important to understand that anyone who is in a position to know anything about the Retro ThinkPad is a Lenovo employee or a business partner and going to be under a non-disclosure agreement.  You probably won't hear anything until closer to the ThinkPad's anniversary, which I believe is at the beginning of October.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[jonas_hendrickx Guru]

Exactly.

What we have seen so far is a few articles to see if there is an audience for the idea which was followed by a few surveys to get an idea what people want to have in their retro ThinkPad.

At this point, all we can do is wait.

[Puppy]

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goretsky wrote:

You probably won't hear anything until closer to the ThinkPad's anniversary, which I believe is at the beginning of October.

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I would understand it if it was a "regular" product. In case of the Retro ThinkPad a more open process has been promised at the beginning. Also no competition can make the same product (unfortunately ?) so it is pointless to hide it under NDA. Such attitude just opens more doubts about the final product and people moving away to different vendor's products.

[Andy_Lenovo]

In my opinion the only place you have a chance, (probably a remote one at that), of receiving an answer to your question is on the original blog site; that's where the idea was posed and the idea is owned and IF it should come to fruition will be the obvious and logical place for it to be announced.

[hausman]

>  it is pointless to hide it under NDA

That may be the case but if a company requires that products under development are under NDA it's unlikely their legal department will make an exception.

Consider for example if Lenovo says today that a Retro is under development then decides later this year to cancel the project. That's far more embarrassing to a company's reputation than not having officially acknowledged development in the first place.

> people moving away to different vendor's products

I would expect the Retro to appeal to ardent ThinkPad fans. If they've moved away to another brand because they don't see the attraction of current ThinkPads, then the Retro may encourage them to come back.

Finally, given the limited market for a Retro and the unique nature of some of the parts that may go into it, e.g. 7-row keyboard, 4:3 display, etc., I'd expect the Retro to cost significantly more than a similar mainstream ThinkPad. So again its appeal would be limited to the most ardent ThinkPad fans who long for features from the past and are prepared to pay for them. The more "retro" you make this model the more expensive it becomes.

That said, I have no inside information. This is just speculation on my part.

[Puppy]

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hausman wrote:

Finally, given the limited market for a Retro and the unique nature of some of the parts that may go into it, e.g. 7-row keyboard, 4:3 display, etc., I'd expect the Retro to cost significantly more than a similar mainstream ThinkPad. So again its appeal would be limited to the most ardent ThinkPad fans who long for features from the past and are prepared to pay for them..

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None of these components are a rocket science. You don't need a spaceship to Pluto nor another ten years of nanotechnology research to manufacture a 7-row keyboard  It is just Lenovo that is tricking customers using super cheap crappy generic components (especially displays) in premium price laptops. So yes, instead of a $50 crap you can find in P50 now you need a $200 real display ... I expect this in a $3000+ laptop.  That's the only Lenovo issue with Retro ThinkPad model, to stop these untenable cost saving tricks for a moment.

I am ready to pay for quality if Lenovo is willing to deliver it. But when you have to swap display from (cheaper) Acer laptop to ThinkPad P50 "workstation" to get a decent display I am not ready being cheated on.

[bladesan]

It is a shame that Lenovo even needs this Retro Line as it is dumbifying the original ThinPad lines. Eg. bad keyboard layout (6row), no status lights on display frame (wifi, bluetooth, disk, battery (not even on W510!)), no separate mic/volume control (not even in 17" models!), non-centered keyboard  and all other stuff. The original line shoul be awesome as in the days (my reference is R61 and W510).

I myself think that 4:3 display is not needed if the pricetag would be significantly bigger because of this - no one is building those panels .. 16:9 or 16:10 is fine, so just bring ThinkPad ergonomics back, be different and best again .

I agree with status being hidded, as business-wise it is better for them; but would like to see one of those Surveys again though - just to keep my imagination flowing .

[Puppy]

Well said http://imgur.com/a/WJENn