ThinkPad Laptops to Sell at Office Depot as Major Manufacturers Move Further Into Retail

Ealier this year Gateway ditched its 100% direct sale model and branded stores to sell through BestBuy and Circuit City. HP has decided to sell through Wal Mart. And now Lenovo (the old IBM) will be entering Office Depotretail stores with ThinkPad models starting this Sunday, leaving Dell as the only major purely direct website sales player left.

According to a report from CNET.com Lenovo and Office Depot have reached an agreementto display and sell theThinkPad Z60t (widescreen thin and light), ThinkPad T43 (thin and light business machine), ThinkPad R series (budget ThinkPad line) and ThinkPad X41 (ultraportable and Tablet PC version) at Office Depot stores nationwide in the USA. This is big news because ThinkPads have typically only been available via the web, and IBM never bothered to compete for shelf space in retail stores. With the introduction of ThinkPad notebooks in Office Depot Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks will be sitting alongside HP, Sony and Toshiba.

Below is a list of ThinkPad notebooks we know will be available at Office Depot and links to information on these laptops:

• ThinkPad T43
• ThinkPad X41
• ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC
• ThinkPad Z60t
• ThinkPad R52

The ThinkPad T43 pictured abovewill soon be on sale at Office Depot locations (view larger image)

This is great news for consumers, because now we can actually go and see a ThinkPad before purchasing it. We can do our own math and decision makingas to whether it's cheaper or more convenient to buy in a store such as Office Depot or via the web. Prior to this ThinkPads had been in retail sores before 1999, but never in the past 6 years except in independent stores such as J&R Electronics and RSC Experience in New York City. Lenovo also said this is not an exclusive deal with Office Depot, meaning the door is open to ThinkPads marching into other retail stores.

HP Pushes the Envelope in Retail

Meanwhile, HP is pushing down the retail line further by starting to sell in Wal Mart stores by the end of this month (if rumors are correct). That's right, hit the electronics section of Wal Mart to buy an HP ze2000 laptop, but not until after you've bought yourbargain priced Pop Tarts from the cereal aisle.

Gateway gave up on pure direct web sales and Gateway Country stores and now sells in various retail outlets such as Best Buy and Circuit City. Apple is opening more and more stores worldwide to sell it's PowerBooks and iBooks directly to customers.

Dell out in the Cold?

All of a sudden it looks more and more like Dell is standing out in the cold with it's 100% pure web sales model. Furthermore, Dell recently revised down it's earnings and outlook for profit and sales. Will they do something to shake up sales by selling via retail? Highly doubtful, but they may need to become more agressive with getting their notebooks displayed at the Dell carts. This author lives inthe largest cityin the U.S.and I have no idea where I could go and see a Dell notebook in person, in fact I don't believe there is anywhere accessible. Samsung meanwhile proudly shows off its notebooks in New York City, but you can't buy them.

Conclusion

Getting your product in front of consumers for them to see is smart, sometimes they don't know about a product and will stumble onto it and like it. Furthermore,it seems that consumers are becoming more savvy andchoosy with notebooks and want to see and feelthem before buying, at least that's what Lenovo seems to think.

 

Will Office Depot sell Thinkpads in Canada, though? The article did not confirm or deny this. I'm assuming not, but one can always hope, eh?

 

I'm assuming no, or at least not at first, since OD is a U.S. based chain they might wait to push it into stores there. I don't see why they wouldn't sooner rather than later though.

 

You live in Seoul, Korea? This list ranks New York as the 11th most populated city in the world. I assume you meant the largest city that New Yorkers care about.

[Edit -- in response to your post below (and to avoid adding another off-topic post):

I was kidding. Like you, I wondered how the population is determined. I was surprised by the list, because I had heard that the population of Mexico City is over 20 million (versus only 8.2 million). As you suggest, the numbers vary widely based on how boundaries are drawn -- and whether unregistered inhabitants and "shanty towns" are counted.]

 

huh, I actually know very well that NYC is not the largest city in the world and when typing that could have sworn I thought in my head U.S. (which would be correct) but typed "world". I stand corrected though, and didn't mean to egocentric there. That list is interesting, I wonder how all those cities draw their boundary lines though, for instance if Queens or Brooklyn (boroughs of New York City) were cities in and of themselves they'd individually be in the top 15 largest cities in the U.S., and then the Jersey City area 200 yards across the river from NYC has millions of people. And in Hong Kong I wonder if Kowloon is included in that number.

Well that's off topic anyway, I'll stop pondering.

 

Here's what I got from Engadget,

"Lenovo has just announced that Office Depot is picking up the ThinkPad line, with the Z60t widescreen and the T43 (with a biometric fingerprint reader) going on sale Sunday, and they’re selling the laptops with a pretty sweet discount: $699 instead of their usual $1399 pricepoint"

$699!?!? I'd love to get the Z60T for that much! But how would the specs be? Probably Celron with 40 gig hard drive and 256 megs of ram, but thats still good for a Thinkpad. This sounds a bit too good to be true for me.

I just went to Office Depot's website and they listed the T43 for $1599, so selling it for $1399 or even $699 (!!!!) would be awesome, but I'm more interested in the Z60T, how much will Office Depot sell it for and what will be the specs??

 

Man, that kind of price, I will send down the money to someone in U.S. so they can buy one and ship it to me. Why is Canada always forgotten?

 

finally, i would be able to see those thinkpad and play around with it
anyway, i think office depot is going to lower the specs to sell them much cheaper

 

I thought HP has been selling in Walmart stores for a couple of years (at least in the Walmart I go to)...or are we talking a dedicated HP section seperated from the rest of electronics or PC/laptop?

 

Engadget is wrong, they don't do their research when posting stuff and often will just throw stuff up. Believe me, every time I read an article there that sounds too good to be true 5 seconds of research reveals they have misquoted a source.

The Z60m is available from the Lenovo site for $699 right now if you get the most basic configuration with a Celeron M and 256MB of memory. Prices will be the same or very similar between the web and retail.

 

really? I've heard about the IC Power brand and some other generic brand being sold at Wal Mart but never a name brand. I don't visit Wal Mart (none around) all that often though and just go by what I hear, so although I know they've been selling laptops for a year or so selling a name brand would be news to me.

 

Hi Abaxter,

I read the news here as well:

http://news.com.com/ThinkPad+return...3-5931238.html?part=rss&tag=5931238&subj=news

Like everyone here, the 699 price got everyone's attention, I couldn't find any Z series list at Office Depot's side. The article did say that it will start this sunday, but sure is anxious to find out which Z and which T is at that price or what are the Z series going on sell.

If you can verify for everyone here is much appreciated, thank you.

 

Well, actually, the Walmart I go to now doesn't even carry computers. The Walmart back when I was in gard. school has a couple of choices in laptop and desktop for a long as I can remember (all the way back to when I purchased my Z505 in 2000 because I took a look at what they have to offer. I can't remember what brand they carried, but it's one of the name brands).

My guess is that the retail space HP has from Walmart is very little so there are very few stores actually carry the laptop that it appears virtually non-existent. Then again, all my friends that have been to the Walmart in their cities were pleasantly surprised by that particular Walmart in Christiansburg, VA. Could be just one of those "abnormal" Walmart.

 

FYI Dell has mall kiosks in major cities

 

That's interesting that WalMart already sold HP's...they just sell generic brands where I live, but then again, I haven't gone there recently.

Glad to see that Lenovo is getting on the shelves, I think it will be good for them in the long run. HP has had great success selling in stores, it's always nice to see something before you buy.