ThinkPad its 1992 launch to keep the Harvard Business School happy. In April 1992, IBM announced the first ThinkPad tablet computer at a news conference. The first ThinkPad tablet, a PenPoint-based device formally known as the IBM 2521 ThinkPad, was positioned as a developer's release. The ThinkPad tablet became available for purchase by the general public in October of the same year. In addition to giving it an innovative name, IBM marketed the ThinkPad through imaginative activities such as early customer pilot programs, numerous pre-launch announcements, and an extensive loaner program designed to showcase the product's strengths and weaknesses. IBM even
Lenovo on carriers to sell its phones, its phones lacked strong branding and unique features to distinguish them in the competitive Chinese market where a weak economy and saturated market is slowing demand and the culture clash between a more hierarchical PC company and the need to be nimble to sell rapidly-evolving smartphones. In response to the weak sales, Lenovo announced in August 2015 that it would lay off 3,200 employees, mostly in its Motorola smartphone business. In the reorganization which followed, Lenovo was uncertain how to brand its Motorola smartphones. In November 2015, members of Lenovo management made statements that