Think Different? Never! ThinkPAD.

Congratulations Dr. Peter Hortensius.

Dr. Peter Hortensius is the new head of Think Business Group.  The new company spun off from Lenovo that will continue to run and improve the Thinkpad computer brand started at IBM.  The best computer brand of all time.

Who is Dr. Peter Hortensius?   He is a former Winnipegger and IBM employee currently part of Lenovo.  He has some patents to his name and has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba.  The best kind of Engineering.  (You heard me, structural engineers.. who needs you!) He was born in Regina but hey, nobody's perfect.  He was raised in Winnipeg and look at that he's now running the major business computer spinoff of the world's second largest PC vendor (as of 2011, might be largest as of now)

So what does this mean? I have no idea.  Hopefully it means a focus on quality hardware and more competition for Apple.  

As a person who exclusively buys Thinkpads, I'm optimistic.  The trend for most budget computers is garbage screen resolution and garbage keyboards and trackpads.  Whereas the trend for Apple computers is quality, excellent design, great support, and crazy high resolution screens and innovation.  This was once the domain of Thinkpads, and while Thinkpads are still quality devices, the line could use a bit of a refresh.

Will we see new thin Thinkpads with brushed metal (or other) designs and Solid State drives with Trackpoint and high quality multi-touch trackpads?  Perhaps with reversible high quality screens that can be flipped into tablet mode?  There is no evidence that we will, but there's no evidence that the NHL lockout might end or that the Bombers will compete in any way next year but you never know.

So many opportunities here.  If any laptop brand can compete with Apple on quality and name recognition, its the Thinkpad line.  When I saw NASA scientists at the launch for the Mars rover using Macbooks it was like a punch in the gut.  How could they switch to the dark side?

Though I refuse to pay for Windows 8.  Windows 7, I'm grudgingly fine with as it works in a reasonable way, but I'd rather have a no OS or Ubuntu option than to be forced to pay for Windows 8.  What a travesty that OS is.  If you're reading this, Peter Hortensius, keep that in mind.  I mean, not having Windows hasn't hurt Apple in any way.  IBM didn't need no stinkin Windows computers they had OS/2 and PC Dos. 

I wish Dr. Peter Hortensius the best of luck with his upcoming crisitunity.  I'm always willing to give horribly insensible suggestions if anyone is willing to ask me.   Hint Hint.