Lenovo Preps Partner Conference--And More

During his visit to Lenovo’s headquarters in North Carolina on Tuesday, The VAR Guy couldn’t help but notice IBM’s logo on dozens of area buildings. Clearly, escaping IBM’s shadow hasn’t been easy for Lenovo–but that may soon change.

After enjoying much success in China, Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC business in 2005 in a bid to challenge HP and Dell on a global scale. Despite intense competition and mixed financial results since the acquisition, Lenovo is showing progress on a few fronts.

The VAR Guy hears Lenovo has sold more than 3 million ThinkPad notebooks equipped with biometric fingerprint readers–an innovative approach to security that eliminates the need for users to remember multiple passwords. As of December 2005, that figure was 1 million ThinkPads, meaning that Lenovo sold a whopping 2 million ThinkPads with fingerprint readers in 2006.

Lenovo is also striving to strengthen its position within small and midsize businesses. Watch for the company to work closely with VARs and aggressively promote its 3000 family of notebooks and desktops to SMBs in 2007. Lenovo launched the 3000 line last year.

More surprises are coming. For starters, Lenovo is trying to figure out how to gradually step out of IBM’s shadow. One example: The company may stop using the IBM logo on ThinkPads, according to Beijing Business Today. Lenovo will also have a smaller presence at this year’s IBM PartnerWorld, which kicks off April 29 in St. Louis. And The VAR Guy hears Lenovo may launch a partner conference of its own this fall, along with regional partner conferences across the globe.

Still, fully breaking away from IBM will take time. Just ask Lenovo’s Web master: Portions of Lenovo’s Web site continue to redirect users to IBM URLs–including Lenovo’s PC support site and even the company’s online history area.

Nearly two years after acquiring IBM’s PC business, it’s time for Lenovo to make history on its own.