Personal computing has reshaped economies and industries, and is
transforming how we express ourselves and relate to one another.
The most personal of personal computers are the portables. We carry
these gadgets with us wherever we go, whether they're
laptops, smartphones, or the coolest new Web-surfing devices. The
Race for Perfect tells the story of two generations of
entrepreneurs, designers, and engineers as they have struggled to
make ever-better portables..
Steve Hamm takes the reader into a world where inspiration, design,
engineering, and marketing come together to produce wave upon wave
of the innovative products that we love to talk about and use. From
the earliest days of portable computing, 40 years ago,
entrepreneurs and designers have pushed forward relentlessly in a
quest to create the perfect device. Their efforts have produced a
few fabulous successes and many failures. But they never give up.
They're driven by the basic rule of the tech industry:
innovate or die..
In addition to a fascinating read, The Race for Perfect offers
valuable lessons for business people in any industry, revealing how
they must.
INNOVATE constantly to differentiate their products.
CREATE design principles that are timeless.
INTEGRATE design and engineering so products are both useful and
fun to use.
IMPROVE quality and convenience without compromise.
TAP social networks to turn customers into fans. .
At the center of this tale is the story of a single product,
Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 laptop. Lenovo, the first Chinese
company to seek to establish a global consumer brand, bought
IBM's PC division in 2005 primarily to get the
company's storied ThinkPad laptops. The X300 was conceived
as a halo product that would draw customers to
Lenovo's entire line. Woven through The Race for Perfect is
a case study of how this ambitious company, with teams in Japan,
the United States, and China, marshaled its resources to pursue
laptop perfection. As X300 came close to the finish line, it
collided head-on with Apple's super-slim MacBook
Air-with surprising results..
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0071606106/
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