ThinkPad

(FU) Image: Lenovo
The ThinkPad logo.

ThinkPad is a professional-oriented brand of laptop and tablet PCs manufactured by Lenovo, which secured the rights to the ThinkPads through its acquisition of the IBM's PC division in 2005. The ThinkPad was first conceived as a dedicated tablet lacking a keyboard, but it emerged as primarily a notebook brand with the successful debut of the models 700 and 700C in October 1992. The 700/C and the subsequent ThinkPad models took the shape of a black rectangular case, featuring a red rubber cap at its keyboard's center as a pointing device.

History

(CC) Photo: Marcin Wichary
The IBM 5100, the world's first portable computer.

The ThinkPad's beginning can be traced back to the 1980s when mobile computing was emerging as a new segment of the PC industry. The earliest form of mobile computing was the portable computer, which incorporated the keyboard and display into the main body in a more conveniently "transportable" package. The first portable computer was the IBM 5100 Portable Computer which was introduced in 1975. Due to its hefty price tag, ranging from $9,000 to $20,000, the 5100 occupied only a small niche among engineers and analysts. While IBM followed up the 5100 with the 5110 portable and the desktop systems 5520 and 5120 from 1978 to 1980, much of IBM's focus shifted back to its traditional mainframe business, which was more profitable than the microcomputers.

(CC) Photo: Hanan Cohen
The IBM 5155 Portable Personal Computer. It weighed 30 lbs and was sold at around $3,000.

But it was precisely during this period, however, when new market developed for affordable "home/personal" computers that were up to several thousand dollars cheaper than their corporate counterparts. To take part in this rapidly growing sector as quickly as possible, IBM adopted an open architecture for "Project Chess" and collaborated with Intel and Microsoft; when the IBM PC was released, 75% of the market share had already been claimed by Apple, Commodore, and Tandy.

In response to the success of the Compaq Portable that was released in November 1982, IBM announced the Portable Personal Computer (5155 model 68) in February 1984. Although IBM's entry into the portable market was highly anticipated and was preceded by declines in stocks prices of competitors like Compaq, the 5155 was revealed to be a very mediocre product that merely reinforced the market dominance of the Compaq Portables.

(CC) Photo:  Andy Ihnatko
The ThinkPad 700C.

GNU Photo
The ThinkPad 710T, which closely resembled the IBM 2521, later renamed the ThinkPad 700T.

I wanted to create a volume as simple as possible and as expressive as possible... and I thought the form of a cigar box, which at that time corresponded to the dimensions... more or less than a laptop computer had to have, would be an expression of what I wanted to do. I wanted to make an object that looks like a black cigar box and that shows on the outside nothing of being what it is... except for the logo of the producer. Then, when you open it, you see this is not a cigar box, but it is a computer, and you see all the complicated stuff inside. And that would create a surprise, and this is the basic concept of the ThinkPad.

- Richard Sapper