Thinkpad: A Different Shade of Blue

by Deborah A. Dell, J. Gerry Purdy

ThinkPad: A Different Shade of Blue tells the exciting inside story behind the creation of one of the most successful brand names in computing. Through interviews with the ThinkPad Team and IBM executives, and access to internal documents and memoranda, the book provides a rare inside view into the workings of an IBM brand team. Here is the inside scoop on the cultural and personality differences that almost killed one of the most significant development efforts in IBM history. More importantly, it offers valuable lessons on what it takes to build a world-class, enduring brand or product.

502 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Bjorn Hardarson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book of one of the greatest innovation move in the computer world. Great to read about the process that lead to the success and failure and how sometimes it can be difficult to get different people with different educational and cultural background to think alike and work together and succeed.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly a breathless repetition of the author’s editorialising the thinkpad story as they wanted to remember it with a particular nod towards sucking up to their business professor who wrote their foreword.

I’m a sucker for primary source material, and there is some, which makes a nice change from the authors’ “ra ra in spite of ibm being generally terrible, they managed to ship a good laptop” monologue.

[Üllar Soon · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I picked up this book, I expected to read more abouth ThinkPads and less about people. There were stories about the development of ThinkPad, but mostly it was a case study about the management. This was interesting in its own right, but I'll give it 3 stars due to my own expectations not lining up with the contents.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm obviously not the target demographic for this book. I was interested in the evolution of the Thinkpad line, not a history of what IBM executives were involved with it. There were a few pictures of landmark Thinkpad machines, but a pictures of every executive ever involved.

That may be interesting to some people, but not for me.