RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC and MINNEAPOLIS – February 8, 2007 – Lenovo and Best Buy For Business today announced that select Lenovo notebook PCs will be available for purchase at approximately 300 Best Buy For Business retail store locations across the U.S. beginning this month. Small business professionals can now purchase the ThinkPad T60 widescreen and Lenovo 3000 N100 notebooks at the Best Buy locations to help meet business and home office personal computing needs.
Lenovo joined forces with Best Buy For Business in April 2006 to offer ThinkPad, ThinkCentre and Lenovo 3000 PCs to small businesses, offering Lenovo-trained sales professionals to help identify and apply the right technology solutions for their unique business needs. Previously, the agreement enabled customers to order Lenovo PCs through the Best Buy For Business telesales team or through www.bbfb.com. The new agreement extends Lenovo’s reach to retail shelves in those stores throughout the country, providing small business customers easy access to business-class technology.
“Best Buy For Business is dedicated to offering small business owners convenient and affordable access to business-class technology,” said David Hemler, vice president of sales and operations for Best Buy For Business. “Lenovo, through its ThinkPad brand, has a long history of offering award-winning business PCs to large enterprises. Through this agreement, Best Buy For Business technology specialists are able to offer that same experience to local small business owners, further enhancing our suite of business-grade technology solutions.”
IT hardware is an important component of IT spending by small-to-medium businesses (SMB). 1 In a survey, Forrester Research, Inc. found that hardware budgets are reported to make up on average 32 percent of North American SMB overall IT spend. It reported that PC upgrades will consume the largest portion of hardware budgets, and replacing or upgrading PCs is the top hardware-related theme for SMBs.
Pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows Vista Business, the ThinkPad T60 widescreen and Lenovo 3000 N100 models available at Best Buy For Business stores will offer individual users the quality, innovation and best-of-breed technologies that Lenovo is known for in the business world. The ThinkPad and Lenovo 3000 systems come equipped with ThinkVantage Technologies and Lenovo Care productivity tools, respectively. For individual business users, these technologies help reduce total cost of ownership and make the PC experience more productive, reliable and worry-free.
“Lenovo is effectively reaching small and medium business customers through our relationship with the Best Buy For Business locations,” said Steve Mungall, vice president of Worldwide and Americas Channels at Lenovo. “This new agreement takes our relationship one step further. By bringing Lenovo PCs to the retail shelves of the Best Buy For Business stores, customers have hands-on access to our products and can immediately begin using their Lenovo PC.”
Best Buy For Business is designed to meet the technology needs of small businesses, offering business-class technology products and technology solutions consultations to help small business owners design, implement and maintain their technology infrastructure. Customers can engage Best Buy For Business through locations within nearly 300 Best Buy stores around the country, via the Web at www.bestbuyforbusiness.com , and over the phone.
About Lenovo Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is dedicated to building the world’s best engineered personal computers. Lenovo’s business model is built on innovation, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction as well as a focus on investment in emerging markets. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, see www.lenovo.com/us/en .
About Best Buy Co., Inc. Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) operates a global portfolio of brands with a commitment to growth and innovation. Our employees strive to provide customers around the world with superior experiences by responding to their unique needs and aspirations. We sell consumer electronics, home-office products, entertainment software, appliances and related services through more than 1,150 retail stores across the United States, throughout Canada and in China. Our multi-channel operations include: Best Buy (BestBuy.com, BestBuy.ca and BestBuy.com.cn), Future Shop (FutureShop.ca), Geek Squad (GeekSquad.com and GeekSquad.ca), Pacific Sales Kitchen and Bath Centers (PacificSales.com), Magnolia Audio Video (Magnoliaav.com) and Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co. (Five-Star.cn). Best Buy supports the communities in which its employees work and live through volunteerism and grants that benefit children and education.
1 Forrester Research, Inc. “2006 IT Hardware Adoption in North American SMBs,” by Michael Speyer, Oct. 12, 2006.
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