Lenovo’s is pulling back the curtain on an all-in-one unit called the Lenovo ThinkCenter A70z. The PC represents a significant step for Lenovo, and has potential implications for channel partners. Here are the details.
You might think an all-in-one (AIO) unit PC could be a little underpowered, but Lenovo is shipping the ThinkCenter A70Z units with Core 2 Duo processors, a DX10 card, DVD drive, six USB ports, on board sound, optional web-cam and a beefy hard drive. The whole system can be customized up and tweaked down. WiFi, wireless keyboard/mouse, and a 500GB hard drive — or economize with a Celeron Dual Core. All of this is stuffed behind a 19 inch screen (wall mountable). The base unit starts at $499.
Lenovo Product Marketing Manager, Bill Dominici, has no doubt this is the future of for businesses. Over the phone, Dominici stressed that since the unit is small and lightweight, it’s already causing ripples through the channel. The whole thing is 16 pounds, and since the unit is self-contained, it means less shipping pallets, less weight and faster distribution than a traditional monitor/tower ship strategy. There’s even a green IT angle to be considered: Dominci drove home the point by noting that each unit saves 250 paper cups and 139 plastic bags, compared to traditional packing solutions.
Since there’s only one cable to plug in — the power cable — it means less setup time after shipping. And since all the new AIO PCs also have Lenovo’s Windows 7 Enhanced Experience, there’s the benefit of a 35 second startup time and other tweaks Lenovo has worked in with Microsoft. If you were worried about unit repairs, he noted that it takes only six screws to gain access to the entire machine and service any parts.
Dominici tells me the strategy behind the AIO was to target the SMB field, though enterprise customers are welcome targets as well. When asked about the AIO in relation to the iMac, Dominici was un-phased. The AIO isn’t competing in the consumer market (although he gladly noted consumers can buy it.) Lenovo’s focus with this product is the growing SMB/Enterprise market and the education, retail, and health care environment where space is limited, he added.
Dominci said that all all-in-one PC’s will comprise about 2.1 million units in 2010 and believes it’s a product category that’s here to stay. Of course, there’s plenty of all-in-one competition in the market including options from HP and Sony, and smaller-screen (19 inches or less) options from Dell, MSI, Averatic, Asus and Shuttle, just to name a few.
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Tags: A70z | AIO Marketplace | All-In-One | Bill Dominici | cheaper shipping | iMac | Lenovo | Windows 7 Enhaced Experience
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