The great Lenovo Notebook promotion

255762 — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 12:37:00 GMT

On Monday I noticed a Tweet about a Lenovo (the old IBM PC business) promotion that was offering up to £200 off of its range of notebook computers. Sounded like one of those things that comes to nothing, but it proved to be anything but.

Lenovo was offering a limited-time online offer for a variable discount on its brand new Lenovo IdeaPad S10. Initially you get a £20 discount off the £300 price tag and are then entered into a daily draw. I did this without thinking I would hear anything.

It's nice to have your preconceptions challenged. I entered on Monday and got a call on Tuesday confirming I had been given a £200 voucher, which I then used to buy an IdeaPad for £99 - £119 with a case. Bargain basement. Thankyou Lenovo.

Someone else in the office also got one and this was before we heard that the campaign was being run by digital agency Underwired, which is promoting the offer exclusively online using the web and social media, including Twitter.

I heard via Twitter (thanks Mike Butcher, btw) and have since passed on the message myself via Twitter, which got retweeted and so it goes. I would say that's a viral success.

If you're interested the offer can be found here on the Lenovo website. I had been thinking of getting an ASUS Eee PC 901 after Ladygeek and others had written so positively about them. Next time.

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The Topshopisation of Tech

2085942 — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:14:00 GMT

I am sure people are bored of me eulogising about my Asus eee 901. Now I have a new Asus product to rave about: the Asus S101- the Macbook Air that you can actually afford.

It retails at $699 for the 16GB Windows version or 30GB for the Linux version, that's less than half the price of the "designer" product which it is imitating. This is great, for the same reason that Topshop is great.

Topshop is well known as the retailer that is famous for selling cheap clothes that look almost exactly designer styles. It's uncanny how quickly they manage to replicate every season's look.

The reason that Topshop's clothes are so cheap is that unlike the original designer product, they are only intended to last for exactly one season. Is that a problem? It depends on whether you like old clothes.

In the past a laptop was like a very expensive designer dress; It cost so much you'd want to get a lot of wear out of it. You could buy a cheaper laptop but it would look unfashionable - not the sort of thing you'd want to be seen in. The new "netbooks" are different: They look great, they turn heads but they are still cheap.

When fashion becomes disposable it changes the way we think about it. I used to carry my old Powerbook in a custom-made hand-decorated case. These days I carry my Asus in whatever I have with me.

A handbag or an M&S carrier-bag. Anything will do. I haul it around like a piece of meat and I will discarded it when it's no longer of any use. It will be 'upgraded' within a year and then forgotten.

Rory Sutherland commented,

"The point is that it is cheap enough not to worry about all that much. As a result you discover that, never mind the weight and size, a £200 laptop is simply more portable than a £1,000 laptop. For instance you can carry it around in a carrier bag, not in a padded case."

A government survey found that the majority of Britons believe that most products are not designed to last a lifetime. Sixty-five per cent feel that products do not last as long as they did 25 years ago, and that even larger items like washing machines will only last a few years before they must be replaced.

While others lament the passing of a 'slower' society the unmistakable fact is that people are quite comfortable with planned obsolescence.

Who amongst us has a phone older than two years? Even if you could make a phone last that long would you really want one that old?

If you wouldn't use a three year old phone, would you want a three year old laptop? When was the last time you wore three year old clothes?

A laptop is no longer for life, but could be just for Christmas.

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The great Lenovo Notebook promotion

The Topshopisation of Tech