聯想ThinkPad：經典設計背后的故事
羽量級選手：聯想的ThinkPad X1 Carbon是世界上最輕的14英寸超級本
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????聯想公司（Lenovo）位于莫里斯維爾的美國總部有個房間能將北卡羅萊納州的鄉村美景盡收眼底，房間的地板上用螺栓固定了好幾排飛機座椅。這個情景顯得有些突兀，直到你恍然大悟，如果要為商務旅客打造一款經久不衰的利器，必須確保該產品在飛機上同樣能夠表現出色。 ????這間房是ThinkPad筆記本的陳列室，IBM在1992年首次推出了這款標志性的黑盒造型筆記本。如今，21年過去了，伴隨著幾十種型號，ThinkPad如今的主人已經換成了聯想（Lenovo）。聯想于2005年收購IBM PC事業部，繼續制造ThinkPad筆記本。它們理所成章地成為IBM ThinkPad的正統傳人。ThinkPad不僅僅是有史以來最暢銷的商務筆記本，它經典的造型也堪稱計算機界最長壽的設計。 ????ThinkPad經久不衰的設計多半要歸功于大衛?希爾。現年56歲的希爾是位溫文爾雅的俄克拉荷馬人，于1985年加入IBM。他在1995年接手了ThinkPad產品線的設計工作，當時ThinkPad已經面市三年，取得了轟動效應，而IBM正考慮升級這款產品。 ????回憶當年的情形，希爾說：“當時的問題是，我們要怎么做？我的看法是，既然它賣得不錯，為什么要忙著修修補補呢？”ThinkPad產品當時大賣特賣，市場上也出現了許多仿造者?！拔覀優槭裁床桓蠈訕悄?？”希爾反問道。 ????自那時起，希爾和他在北卡羅來納以及日本的設計團隊就一直在忙這件事。 ????第一代ThinkPad筆記本是由著名德國設計師理查德?薩帕設計的。他希望設計出一款如同香煙盒或者飯盒般樸實無華的產品。當然，設計并不總是一帆風順。薩帕當時打算在鍵盤中部設計一個特殊的紅色觸控桿來操作光標，不過IBM的安全團隊提出了反對意見。希爾說，這幫人認為紅色只能用于類似緊急關閉這類按鈕。 ????薩帕迅速找到了迂回的解決辦法。他把顏色稍稍做了調整，變成了所謂的“IBM品紅?！毙路桨格R上得到了批準，薩帕隨后逐漸改變顏色，直到最后又變回了最初的紅色，這下似乎再沒人提意見了。如今，小紅帽成為了ThinkPad的標志性設計，同時也是用戶反響最大的設計：大家要么對它愛不釋手，要么對它恨之入骨。 |
????A few rows of airline seats are bolted to the floor in a room with sweeping views of the North Carolina countryside at Lenovo's U.S. headquarters in Morrisville. It's an incongruous sight, until you realize that if you are going to make one of the most enduring tools for business travelers, well, you need to make sure it's going to work well on airplanes. ????The room is a showcase for the ThinkPad, the iconic black-box notebook computer that IBM (IBM) first introduced in 1992. Twenty-one years and dozens of models later, Lenovo, which bought IBM's PC business in 2005, is still making ThinkPads, which are instantly recognizable as descendants of that original model. Indeed, the ThinkPad is not only one of the bestselling business laptops of all time, but also the most enduring design in the history of the computer industry. ????Much of the responsibility for the ThinkPad's slowly evolving look falls on David Hill, 56, a soft-spoken Oklahoman, who joined IBM in 1985. He took over design of the ThinkPad line in 1995, as IBM was considering how to update a three-year-old computer that had become a mega-hit. ????"The question was, What are we going to do now?" Hill says of the time when he joined. "My view was that if it is not broken, why fix it?" The ThinkPads were selling so well that they had sparked a string of copycats. "So why not make it better?" he asked. ????Hill and his team of designers in North Carolina and Japan have been doing that ever since. ????The first ThinkPad was conceived by Richard Sapper, a renowned German-born designer. Sapper envisioned a device that would have the simplicity of a cigar box or a bento box. The process was not without hiccups. When Sapper chose a particular kind of red for a pointing stick that would be embedded into the keyboard to control the cursor, IBM's product safety group balked. Red, apparently, could only be used for emergency shutoff buttons, says Hill. ????Sapper quickly came up with a workaround. He varied the tone a bit a created a new color that he called "IBM magenta." After the new color got the okay from the product safety police, he gradually reverted the tone back to the red he had originally chosen, and no one seemed to notice. Nowadays, the red dot is an integral part of the ThinkPad design, and one that still elicits strong reactions: Users either love it or hate it. |
