To coincide with the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 7 OS release, Lenovo has announced a joint certification for its ThinkPad and IdeaPad PC products to provide customers with an enhanced computing experience and channel partners with increased sales opportunities.
Stefan Bockhop, director of channel sales for Lenovo Canada, said Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience is a certification that the company developed jointly with Microsoft for Lenovo PC products that will run Windows 7. The products with the Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience certification will be made available on October 22.
The certification means that the Lenovo PC products have been optimized for Windows 7 to give users enhanced features, performance and tools, Bockhop explained. The Lenovo ThinkPad products are designed primarily for business customers, ranging from small to large business and power users, while the IdeaPad PCs target the consumer market, which includes home office users and gamers.
Both the ThinkPad and IdeaPad notebook lines were designed with three key pillars in mind. The ThinkPad PCs are meant to be fast, secure and built for business, while the IdeaPad PCs are designed to have faster system boot up and shutdown times, richer multimedia capabilities and provide easier system maintenance.
For Lenovo’s channel community, the availability of the Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience certified products means more customer opportunities, Bockhop said.
“This certification will aid partners in having conversations with their customers around the release of Windows 7,” he said. “Partners will tell their customers it’s not a matter of if (they’ll) migrate to Windows 7, but when (they’ll) migrate to this environment.”
The ThinkPad and IdeaPad PCs will have faster boot start-up times than identical configured, non-optimized PCs, Bockhop explained. He mentioned that with select Think PCs, Windows 7 will start up to 56 per cent faster than a machine that runs Windows XP or Vista. The shutdown time of the device can also be as little as five seconds, he added. IdeaPad PCs can start Windows 7 up to 33 per cent faster and can shut down the machine 50 per cent faster than identically configured, non-optimized machines.
Select ThinkPCs can also connect to the Internet to provide users with anytime, anywhere Web access via Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, 3G mobile broadband, 4G WiMax and Bluetooth capabilities, Bockhop said.
On the Windows 7 release date, which is scheduled for October 22, Bockhop said the Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience PCs will have a sticker on them to indicate they hold this certification. Eventually, Bockhop says all of the products Lenovo sells into the channel will receive this designation too.
“Windows 7 Lenovo Enhanced Experience is another tool our partners can use to initiate conversations with their customers,” Bockhop said. “Partners have to have candid conversations with their customers to bring them the facts and to also let them know what changes need to be made to help them migrate to the (Windows 7) environment when it makes the most sense.”