The Lenovo Chromebook: Another Nail in Microsoft's Coffin
By Anton Wahlman 01/15/13 - 06:00 AM EST The Street
And Microsoft is only one major target.
"NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Many of us have had one. In fact, for those working for corporate America, we have been issued one every three or so years for the better part of the last 20 years.
I'm talking about a ThinkPad laptop, of course. It was first made by IBM and in the last decade Lenovo. It was black, had a great keyboard, a matte screen, and it remains the most reliable Windows laptop around.
Each of those millions of Lenovo ThinkPads ran the latest version of Microsoft's Windows. One could argue that the Lenovo ThinkPad was Microsoft's face of corporate America on the road.
In other words, Microsoft and the ThinkPad laptop were locked in arms against all PC challengers of the past, from Sun to Linux to Apple's Mac. Brothers in arms, locked together in that sturdy black box residing on traveling corporate America's lap, it was Microsoft's Chinese defense wall.
This is about to change.
In 2013, Lenovo will break with its Microsoft Windows exclusivity and start offering PCs -- laptops and desktops alike -- based on Google's PC operating system, Chrome OS. Such laptops and desktops are commonly called "Chromebooks" and "Chromeboxes," respectively.
Why is Lenovo doing this?"
The Nail Gun