[jnaina]

A company I previously worked for was the authorized Dell break-fix partner/sub-contractor for the APJ region many years ago. Under this model, any Dell repairs covered by a Dell Support contract, either corporate or individual, would trigger the dispatch of our engineers to perform on-site repairs with the required parts, following initial diagnosis by Dell Level 1 support.

Despite the contract being rebid annually through an online auction process, the business remained phenomenally profitable. This was largely driven by the high failure rates of Dell hardware at the time, particularly laptops, and the fact that we were paid per break-fix incident, regardless of the underlying issue or long-term resolution.

Lenovo, however, studied this model, learned from Dell's mistakes (Lenovo hired away lots of Dell service managementfolks) and took a different approach. Rather than monetising failure, they focused on eliminating the root cause of high support costs by designing laptops with superior build quality, durability, and repairability.

At least in my view, Lenovo represents Dell 2.0, the model Dell should have evolved into, but didn’t.

[estimator7292]

I got a brand new thinkpad last year and was utterly delighted the first time I opened it. Captive screws, unbreakable spring loaded plastic clips instead of fragile molded tabs. I expect the case to last a long, long time.