Lenovo is Chinese. Why aren't they sanctioned?
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- čas přidán 2. 05. 2024
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While Huawei, Tiktok & other Chinese tech firms can't catch a break, Lenovo is thriving. Here is how they got into this amazing position.
The Story Behind - ep. 97
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I admit I didn't realize Lenovo was a chinese company.
I thought it was Japanese like Epson. Even my laptop is an ideapad
I literally own a Lenovo laptop and I did not even *think* it was a Chinese brand.
I've owned Realme and Xiaomi phones, and handled Huawei laptops, and I can assure you, no matter how subtle it is, Chinese products have their own "style" of designing their UI, whether through design choices or the custom software they add.
Lenovo really feels like it was designed in the US or something.
That is disappointing to hear 😒 shocking that none of you knew
@@nehcooahnait7827 who gives a fuck. As TechAltar said,it's better people don't know they are Chinese cause then people might be more apprehensive in buying their products
It’s headquarters is in Hong Kong
I worked for IBM where only ThinkPad was used for our daily work. I asked management why not other brands; I was told IBM owned 45% of Lenovo when ThinkPad merged and became Lenovo
Used to own...IBM divested completely in 2011
ThinkPads are still made in the US. Thinkbooks are Chinese made. That rule is slowly fading after pandemic tho unfortunately
@@kennwin Hmm, not sure on that one. EMEA ThinkPads have been manufactured in China since at least 2005!
@@johnroberts2905 ooh i believe you’re right but they switched in 2012 apparently. This is what it says on newegg.
“Lenovo also assembles ThinkPad and ThinkCentre computers at a Whitsett, North Carolina manufacturing plant. The Chinese company opened this facility in 2012 for faster shipping to its US consumer base.”
He said legend is largest shareholder at 35% so IBM can't be 45% obviously
There is some excellent information presented. What this fails to mention is that Lenovo was _the_ manufacturer for the IBM Thinkpad since it's inception. Basically, they were selling the product line to the contractor who manufactured it. This had some advantages, such as a much simplified handover. It's not like they just randomly sold it to Lenovo.
Also of note, the mention of them being a "systems integrator" rather than manufacturer was directly inherited from IBM. This was IBM's whole strategy for their desktop and notebook computers from the beginning, to buy products off the market and simply 'assemble' them rather than manufacturing _any part_ of their systems. It's how Microsoft (and by extension, Bill Gates) ended up creating something as core as their OS.
Wow that is new info...would have never have guessed
Really? Source?
@@zeeninetynine sorry, I’ve been in this business for 30 years and this is very old news. I’m not going to look it up now. You can do your own research or choose to believe which you want. I’m simply stating facts.
@@zeeninetynine by the way, I did a quick search of who originally manufactured the IBM ThinkPad. There were dozens of links the fact that you couldn’t even bother to do such a simple search before resorting to asking me. My source shows me a laziness on your part that isn’t even worth addressing beyond this statement, I would actually make one other comment. Consider learning to do a little bit of basic research rather than just being argumentative.
Lenovo wasn't so small a player, nor lacking experience in the PC industry. They were the OEM for IBM's ThinkPad. Even by the mid 90s. Just as Foxconn has been Apple's OEM for decades. Foxconn was just a small OEM offering motherboards and daughterboards back then. Now a major manufacturing force.
So then Lenovo ThinkPad is equivalent to a Foxconn iPhone
Trash. You just make the simple components and assemble. Chips are not made in China. The actual capable components
IBM sold its hardware business to the Chinese after the GFC. Earlier it used to be IBM Thinkpad.
@@terryjones9784As far as I know, Lenovo's laptops in China are OEMed by Taiwan's Compal.
Blackrock has 5.1% share. This alone might be the reason why Lenovo is not under any US pressure still
Learn about what passive manegment is
They own a few percent of ZTE as well, and ZTE is not in a great position with sanctions. For BlackRock and Vanguard a singular company going up or down isn't really a focus.
It's only a matter of time I think
As if 5% is really that important. That’s nothing.
@@abdiganiaden 5% in hardware business is excellent. Those are real asset, product and sure revenue. It is not some social media with inflated value.
Ah, good ol'美帝良心想. Good to see someone covering their story.
For those of you who didn’t get the reference, the name 美帝良心想 (roughly translates to Lenovo, America’s Conscience) was jokingly given to them by Chinese netizens in the 2010s as they consistently sold their stuff for significantly less aboard compared to within the Chinese mainland. For example, the same speced ThinkPad X280 sold for $1299 in the US, but ￥13999 (roughly $2,025) in China. This was seen by Chinese consumers as Lenovo pandering to the west, earning them the derogatory name. In recent years, Lenovo is trying smooth things over with Chinese consumers, and prices have more or less equalized across the coasts, but the nickname has stuck. It’ll be interesting to see if Lenovo ever gets its reputation restored in the Chinese mainland.
What is the sales tax rate for computers in China? Remember that US prices don't include sales tax, prices in just about every other country in the world do.
@@katrinabryce If I remember correctly, computers and most other electronics have a tax rate of 10% in china, which is included in the price.
Lenovo shouldn't care about how they do in PRC, because Communazi PRC has no future.
@@tazdingo5297
if US government keep zero-sum game in its mind.
and try to use Taiwan as a tool to bargain with China.
then sadly YES.
what US not understand is that Taiwan problem is not only about land and economic interests
it is about the legitimacy of the government who rules China.
it is one of the sign of the past century of humiliation
no matter whitch party is in charge of China.
it won't dare to lose it, or it will face the fury of it's ppl.
@Tazdingo Well average Chinese has little to no political powers, whereas Chinese elites including Xi himself has families and capitals all over the West. As long as the West commit to protect Taiwan, China is nothing but a "paper tiger".
Slight correction: lenovo didn't take over IBMs server division but rather only their x86 server division, this is quite an important distinction as it means IBM powerPC servers are still manufactured, sold and supported entirely by IBM with no involvement of lenovo, and it's why many banks will go with IBM power for their servers
That’s actually what he says at 8:02
No worries tho
@@anonemoose7777Lenovo is NOT Chinese, 联想。
It's actually IBM computers that a Chinese company bought
@@dongshengdi773In the end it's owned by chinese company. With all the sinophobia goin on, the question is why so many chinese companies' products selling normally in the US and not Huawei. Because Huawei holds 5G patents that the US wants badly, Trump made no secret he wants to acquire Huawei pre-pandemic. From then on, when Huawei didn't bite, things escalated to how it is today lol, from arresting the CEO of Huawei via Canada to today's trade wars.
what you said is not really true about bank but ok.
I have used asus products, from mobile, gaming laptop, gaming headphones, monitor. The only thing that can be accepted is monitor. Gaming laptop and mobile have so much problems. Headphones dead after 1 year.
I bought them because of low price.
Next time, I won't buy anything from Asus for sure
Great video, I love your history videos. Funny to see this particular one in my recent bought Motorola Edge 30 Ultra here in Brazil. Nice work!
My PC is Lenovo, my Mobile is Motorola. Bought value mid-range products and they work so well I've not had to update for most of a decade. Very solid products.
Lenovo pcs are 💩💩💩 worst quality
@@B21_raider dell, hp, lenovo all pre built pc are shit
@@B21_raider no
@@B21_raider wait for HP plastic case
@@B21_raider have you not used thinkpad before
I work in Europe for a very big American tech company and I was so surprised, when I found out that the only Windows laptop choice for employees was Chinese Lenovo ThinkPad.
I would expect HP/Dell/Acer/ASUS, but no.
Well hp is often overpriced, all my friends that uses dell and asus seems to always have problems, and acer is... acer.
well you said it, you work in Europe, they do not serve every US interest out there, pcs can be chinese, korean or from wherever.
And remember what reputation have thinkpads here.
HP Inc extinction! Hopefully! HP is worst! HP Inc deserve extinction!
I work in IT at a medium size company ~1000 employees, and I can tell you that we love dealing with Lenovo here. Their customer service is superb, any problems that we might encounter in any of their products will be either fixed rapidly or the product will be replaced without them asking a lot of questions. My experience dealing with their customer service is very different from dealing with companies like HP, Toshiba or Dell... That's why if to choose a company to deal with, it will always be Lenovo and that's one of the main reasons that they're so successful
Just fyi:
The name "Lenovo" is derived from the words "Le-" which stands for "Legend" and "-novo" which is a Latin word meaning "new." The name reflects the company's aspiration to create innovative and groundbreaking products while honoring its origins as a successful Chinese computer company, originally known as "Legend."
Well, they made themselves a legend in my books with the X1 carbon. Absolutely lovely machine!
I am Chinese and have been using Lenovo computers for many years. In fact, when Chinese people mention Lenovo nowadays, the emotions are quite complex. In the previous era, when I was young, Lenovo represented a Chinese technology brand and was a source of pride for the Chinese people. But in recent years, it has been leaning more towards the United States. The same model of computer is much more expensive in China compared to the United States, and there are often news reports in the online media about Lenovo's top management transferring technology and assets to the United States. Lenovo's image among the Chinese public is not good now, and it has a nickname called "美帝良心想" , which means that it is a conscience-driven company of American imperialism. In other words, it has become a traitor to China.
Thanks for the info, very interesting. I hope our governments don't trick the people into worse situation! Peace is what the greatest majority of us want.
lol great info
I got a p50 from the US. It was cheaper. But it is shitty. Actually, I have three different Thinkpads. I am going to dump the brand.
@@tomchen513wdym thinkpads are great laptops. way better than any other manufacturer.
"Chinese software has backdoors."
The video I was waiting for. As a system administrator it is really hard to go past Lenovo from an enterprise perspective, this was a very entertaining history lesson and analysis, thank you for covering it.
I work in computer repair, we recommend Lenovo a lot due to it's reliability but I've always been a bit skeptical due to their Chinese ties. Still am, but this video did explain well why Lenovo isn't as much of a threat to privacy and the likes.
@@michaelbauer4065 agreed, yeah I thought it did a great job of covering why it's public image in the tech sphere is so different to other prominent Chinese tech companies
HP Inc extinct! Hopefully
@@michaelbauer4065 sy😢
@@michaelbauer4065 How about the square charging port?
Youre not exactly right about the superfish scandal and glazed over it a little too fast. Youre right in that it was a preinstalled piece of software, mainly attaching itself to web results, but the biggest problem was that it was injected into windows via the BIOS and would reinstall after a clean install of Windows.
Now I dont think this was necessarily malicious as it was just selling software installation like a preloaded trial of MS Office or Norton, but what made it a huge security risk was the way Lenovo implemented it, making it a huge security risk for amyone with this revision of hardware.
Lenovo arent the only ones to have done something like this but it deserves a little more explanation than a hand wave
this is still 100% relevant today, disguised as security tool with Absolute® for example
@@timfreeeed most hp laptops today expose a fake device to the windows, and windows update pulls drivers for that device, which turns out to be "analytics services".
Yes- the comment about superfish was wildly off-base. The fact they've developed such software which re-installs from the UEFI should be terrifying to any security expert.
@@timfreeeed Nonsense. It's Anti-theft technology from an American company.
@@Madwonk Not only that Lenovo afterwards had at least 2 more similar security scandals with secretly installing rootkits.
Very informative history dive. Thank you for providing this important perspective. Subbed.
I didn't know about Lenovo being Chinese. I volunteer at a ewaste recycling place, and I fix a lot of stuff that comes in so we can resell it for super cheap, and I get a lot of lenovo stuff from different businesses and that, and what I can say about Lenovo is that their products really can be some of my favourites, because they have full guides on disassembly and repair of things like their all in one PCs, the lenovo products I have seen really feel like they support right of repair, when compared to other products I've seen that are downright almost impossible to open without almost destructive means. Apart from the weirdness of their chargers, which I will say are pretty much universal with all their products, unlike other companies that have 50 different chargers for each style of laptop, lenovo is a company that just really has nice products which I enjoy working with.
This was such a great episode. Had always wondered why there was no crackdown on Lenovo. Wouldn’t have cared to look for myself. Thank you for solving the mystery for us.
The answer is actually really simple, it's not targeted/banned YET, because it's not as explosively successful as Huawei (and therefore not as high on the hit list). If/when it does, this guy'll be making another video "why Lenovo is banned by the US".
@@agenthex Hope they're never banned. They make the best computer mice and other peripherals.
Lenovo aka IBM has US backdoors -- Huawei has been confirmed US cannot find a BACKDOOR in.....
Lenovo is a sellout and clearly not a threat to the American hegemony so it's not banned. Who would even impose sanctions on an assembly factory with no technology?
probably more likely they split of their chinese parts
Your content is so great for getting insight of inside-decision making in large firms! Love it.
When I was in college, I had four roommates, and the four of us had four different brands of laptops. My Lenovo was 10% cheaper than their computers, but when playing games, my computer performed much better than their HP, Asus and Samsung. So after graduating from college, two of us also replaced the new Lenovo computers.
@@pinglunyuan11吹牛逼你也信哈麻皮
i have a lenovo tablet. It sucks. Never had such a worse and slow tablet. Never buy any lenovo again. And now i know that its chinese sure not.
@@jote2275Laptops are good but tablets are bad.
@@jote2275Lenovo makes poor android tablets but to say nobody should buy their products is a stretch considering they make some of the best workstation hardware for the price on the market
@@jote2275ah you are one of those guys. typical shill
Thanks for the video, it was fascinating to learn about the background of this company.
I needed a new laptop for university & work.
I’ve had a Dell laptop for over a decade and it’s starting to show its age, despite its heavy use and maintenance.
It’s interesting that the big name brands such as HP and Dell have been dethroned as the best by lesser known companies such as ASUS and Lenovo. In the end I got an ASUS, it has worked wonders.
Lenovo is 'lesser known'? You must be too young to know any histroty of PC.
@@blitzrumble2956 Also Asus has not "dethroned" Dell or HP. Walk into any office, and tell me how many Asus laptops, or PCs you find.
@@Aaron-ui9tj you are barking on the wrong tree.
@@blitzrumble2956 What ? lol
I bought a Lenovo Legion laptop and I can absolutely see why they are a market leader
I also bought a Legion 7i Pro this year and I absolutely love it. The building quality is more solid than other brands' products of this year. I switched over from the HP OMEN laptop by the way, and I have to say that it looks really flimsy and plastic compared to Legion.
great purchase guys
It's ironic how you mention "you could just reinstall Windows" regarding SuperFish. You see, this malware was designed in a way that was integreted into BIOS/EUFI so even reinstalling Windows wouldn't help.
From a zdnet article: "The engine, which resides in the computer's BIOS, replaces a core Windows system file with its own, allowing files to be downloaded once the device is connected to the internet."
This piece of software was probably meant to be just some stupid adware, but due to the way it worked it basically destroyed encryption on your whole computer (It installed its own root certificate to MITM your web browser activity).
Exactly this .then again it would be very dumb on their part to think no one will find out considering the fact it's a Chinese company they've got all eyes on them so if their doing something shady someone will find out and that would be the end
This is technically true, but also very wrong. See the software of Superfish is a rootkit. And Windows Defender will remove it, as it is declared rootkit. The other thing - Superfish is not created by Lenovo, or China. It is US company, founded with capital from Israel. The software is adware. It is an attempt by Lenovo to make more money, like most companies do. It is not some spying operation. The failure made Lenovo use as clean installs as possible. So that Superfish affair actually made Lenovo computers better. They come with less bloatware than machines of other companies.
Intel Management Unit doesn't care about operating system, only your IP address to take over your PC. 😢😢😢😢
@@mrkitty777 IME is a computer within a computer system, it is required for the system to even operate. No different from BIOS
@@donkey1271 LibreBoot disables Intel Management Unit, they consider Intel Management Unit an exploitable trojan.
Their products are popular around the world. They own ThinkPad, IdeaPad, ThinkCentre, and IdeaCentre, which were once IBM brands (before IBM sold its computer division in 2005).
And the Legion lineup of gaming laptops (which was founded long after that acquisition, and so was IdeaPad apparently)
I very much enjoy your well researched discussions & respect the vast amount of background experience you bring to your stories.
I continue to wonder, however, if all the evaluations & discussions regarding Lenovo's decentralized laptop software & parts sourcing, manufacturing operations and management policies applied equally and in full measure to Lenovo's MOTO Android phones.
Or are Lenovo Thinkpads, Chromebooks, and Android Tablets a different story from Lenovo MOTO Android phones?
I have heard disparaging criticism from my carrier's rep and wonder if MOTO phone users have reason for concern that Uncle Xi might be vacuuming their data.
As a Chinese, I honestly thought Lenovo was an American company! Hahaha lol😅😂
😂😂😂
所以说是美帝良心😅
I guess that is the way it SHOULD be. Business should not be nationalized. Keep politics out.
@@noahway13 Yep. State and Corporation should NEVER mix.
Twitter was a warning to the world about how dystopian the merger between state and corporation can get.
Lenovo being mostly seperate from the chinese government is good news.
I still wish they had third party audits of their products. I love thinkpads to death but if anything, id rather be spied on by the Netherlands, Britain, or America, than I would by China.
Atleast the EU isnt stealing my genetic data to make race-based biological weapons, all while enacting litteral nazi-era policies.
Politics always exists and always try to influence people around world, as long as there's 2 groups and more people that's had different goals and interests to others.
12:33 No, you could not! The software was built into the BIOS and automatically installed when you installed Windows.
Lenovo is headquartered in North Carolina its about as Chinese as Telegram is Russian is a good example.
Yes the people in charge are a different nationality but if theyre running the business from another country and don't agree with their govts its not the same thing. That's not including all the investors of Lenovo which are American.
I've a Lenovo Thinkpad T430 and literally the best laptop I've ever had.
Bought in 2013 and still keeping up to the task in 2023. Previously I had an HP and it died within 1 year of having it.
At 6:29 there is an error, it says "Riley, USA". I think it was supposed to be "Raleigh, USA", although it's really RTP (research triangle park) or more specifically a part of RTP that is in Morrisville, NC which is a suburb of Raleigh/Cary. That's a weird mistake to make.
My very first laptop was an IBM ThinkPad back in the mid-2000s and is to this day still one of the best things I've ever owned. I've never had any real issues with any of the ThinkPads I've owned, they've all been some of the best laptops I've ever used, the best one so far being the ThinkPad T420. ThinkPads have always been my goto for PC laptops for years now, used ones from ex-corporate fleets can be a great value over most other cheap laptops. My T420 was dirt cheap as an ex-corporate laptop I bought a couple of years after it was built. That laptop served me and my father well for many years and I still have it in storage. With some upgrades to a quad-core i7 and 16GB of RAM it could still be competent today.
I also work as an IT admin for an international corp who has standardized on Lenovo hardware to replace older Dell and HP hardware that was acquired during a merger of two companies, and they're so much better to manage and deploy than the HPs and definetely the Dells (the HPs are okay, but the Dells are seriously awful). We don't even need to wipe out the preloaded Windows image, the ThinkPads are bloat-free so that we can just enroll them into Azure AD as-is and they're fine. They're not perfect, especially the USB-C equiped models used soldered on USB-C ports which break easily, but from both a corporate and a personal perspective, the ThinkPad is still miles above anything else.
Having refurbished hundreds of computers with a team over 5 years, in my experience rolling out multiple Dell laptops simultaneously using SCCM was generally a fairly painless experience. They actually were the only ones with reliable templates, everything else you had to do on an individual basis.
I was so disappointed in the recent years by ASUS, DELL & HP PCs. It is hard to admit that now Lenovo PCs perform better & look greater. Only Microsoft Surface line can competes with Lenovo PC line in quality & beauty but not the price. 😮💨
Trust me that T420 still has some life left in it.
Agreed. Working in Big Blue for 12 yrs, I've come across many of their Thinkpad series laptop. Now I'm in one of the biggest bank in US where they mainly using Dell, I can tell you, if is different. There's no robust feeling in Dell
My dad works for my country's military, and for their computer needs, they partnered with Lenovo. When I visit my dad's workplace, I noticed that they use Lenovo products ranging from PCs (ThinkCentre), keyboards, mouse, to laptops (ThinkPad & IdeaPad). It's quite surprising, to be honest.
Im American and I noticed the same lol. Lenovo everything.
IBM was braindead when it went thru with the whole sale.
But in some way, letting their PC business branch off as essentially its own company, was a genius idea.
Very well done, I remember the Lenovo/IBM deal and that Lenovo was basically Chinese but had no idea how broadly international they were. I'm still a little confused about Motorola Mobility vs. Motorola as a whole though..maybe you can do a Motorola history?
😥 It's too sad.
On 29th January 2014 , Google announced the sale of Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion. motorala was a loss making company earlier and it had an ample amount off carried forward losses. Google used those by setting off the losses with its profit
here you have your answer
Computerphile and Tom Scott did an excellent overview of superfish, the real issue there was that the software installed an insecure certificate authority in the root store of its Windows installs to insert ads by overcoming the SSL chain of trust
I wouldnt call it "Chinese Spyware" as much as just "incompetent on its face / pure CVE"
Plus Superfish was only ever on a handful of consumer laptops. Tney wouldn't dare stick it on Enterprise machines as any large enterprise would drop them immediately.
It would probobly not even run on enterprise, as that is 99% GNU/Linux now-a-days.
Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations.
President Jimmy Carter - Speech on Relations with China
czcams.com/video/37azeXBjYJc/video.html
Don't be ignorant...🤔
Superfish was on the IdeaPad and YOGA lines (not the thinkpads) and would reinstall itself from the UEFI BIOS which means you can't simply reinstall the OS as the video seems to claim.
The thing is it opens up a big security hole for Chnese bad actors to exploit.
Havent watched the video yet but there was a yearly rotation of the laptops that would be provided and it switched between Lenovo and dell or hp. After a few years that stopped as the thinkpad build quality and warranty support was just so much better. Everyone who did not get a Lenovo eventually ended up with one because their first laptop would break within 5 years. Mine is still going 9 years later. Sure some would break, but some not nearly all as with the other brands.
I will always love these types of videos. I hope there are more people who are curious about a company's history, business model, practices, shenanigans, etc.
It's not to glorify and idolize them but to learn from them, even if you are not neccessarily building your own business.
"Chinese software has backdoors."
ISN'T IT TELLING... That at the time of the ban on Huawei, Huawei had JUST become NUMBER 1 in WORLDWIDE phone sales charts BEATING APPLE and SAMSUNG... But yet... The reasons given was "security concerns etc etc because they are linked to the CCP". HOWEVER... THERE WAS NO BAN on Oppo, OnePlus, Unihertz, Lenovo/Motorola, TCL, Doogee, Xiaomi (a MASSIVE company making ALL SORTS of electronic devices/gadgets etc), Poco, Vivo, ZTE, Infinix etc etc... WHO ARE ALL Chinese companies THAT HAVE TIES to the CCP (Chinese Govt) in various minor/modicum ways! EVERY COMPANY in China HAS A LINK in various forms to the CCP, it's just Chinas way of doing things!
NOTE: Even companies like Temu, iWish and others like them!! Hence you can buy a £/$1 dollar item and get free shipping etc! (There ARE videos explaining this how the online retailers & delivery companies claim moneys back from the Govt etc (there's a link to the USPS too if memory serves) - Check out the 'Serpentza' - 'How the hell can China ship for free to your door??!?' video). So, the question is:-
IF there were security concerns about the big company Huawei, then WHY NOT ALSO BAN THE OTHERS TOO (especially Lenovo/Motorola & Xiaomi as they REALLY ARE BIG companies)???? 'Sepentza' channel will show you A LOT of VERY REVEALING information on Chinas strange, deluded and often VILE practices (in general AND to their own peoples!) - like painting trees/crops/pigs, 'Spit fighting' and a whole lot more... 😒
To me, I think it was ALL BULLSH!T !!
Huawei were SERIOUSLY INNOVATIVE. Their Camera systems were LEADING the phone manufacturer market (P30 Pro/P40 pro etc etc), look how they are with their foldable tech now, showing Samsung a thing or two!!!
Google REALLY WANTED to WORK WITH Huawei (and visa versa), there was BILLIONS lost in the closures/rearrangements in the chip/phone manufacturing/parts supply/delivery/etc processes (TMC and such LOST OUT BIG STYLE with cancelled contracts).
And WE... THE CONSUMER... LOST OUT to some SERIOUSLY BRILLIANT INNOVATIVE and CREATIVE products that ALSO WOULD HAVE kept the likes of Apple AND Samsung on their toes, and maybe... Just maybe... MIGHT have kept silly prices from skyrocketing with a HEALTHY competition/possible price war....
The D!CKHEADS in the U.S. Govts REEEEAAAALLLY SCREWED THE POOCH ON THIS ONE!!!! 😠😠😠😡😡😡
😎🇬🇧
I have been wondering about this for a couple of years now, thank you for doing this video
I'm impressed by your Chinese pronunciations lol. It surprised me hearing perfect Chinese in the middle of an English sentence.
Very interesting episode. I just love thinkpads at work, and I work as production engineer. My thinpads hit the floor, oil and dirt, are carried from one place to another for the whole day and they just work. No issues. Used HP elite Z books and whatnot. They dont stand a chance.
It is very good to use this series
One thing I was surprised about Lenovo was that when they bought Arrows Phone from Fujitsu, I was sure they would move production of Arrows Phones to China. But instead, Arrows came out with the latest phone called the N series and it was Made in Japan! Respect to Lenovo for being an understanding and strategic international company.
Thx I was wondering about this issue and had even asked around about it
Very informative and insightful video. Great work!
Lenovo is exactly the Chinese company that Americans want from China. Do all the low-level assembly, use all American-made components and don't invent or enhance. As you said, they are a "system integrator", that's no different from when IBM had it. All the US anti-china hate will go away if China would give up on AI, electric cars, and space exploration, and go back to being the cheap factory of the world. Essentially do what Japan did. That's why Lenovo can survive in today's geopolitics.
Good Assessment.
China is a threat bud.
What a load of horse shit, US sinophobia exists because US capital interests are threatened by Chinese success, it doesn't matter what their product is, what matters is the the US corporate elite don't have control over it
bingo
This is the correct answer for Lenovo not blacklisted by the U.S.
I think the reason Lenovo is so popular is that they bought and kept IBM's design, and they still have the best laptop keyboards. Nothing beats a ThinkPad T-series for office work purposes.
Had Lenovo made their own design and brand, they would never have had a chance, no matter how good they were. I remember going from IBM ThinkPads to Lenovo ThinkPads.
Another ting is that they bought IBM's desktop and laptop brands at a time when there wasn't the same distrust of China, I think that plays a big role too.
I hate how most of their laptops have the fn key on the bottom rightmost corner instead of ctrl.
@@jasonchan5504 mine hasn’t, it’s with the Ctrl outside the Fn key, I just compared mine with a HP and a Dell, and the Fn and Ctrl keys are placed the same on my Lenovo 🤷🏻♂️
The i m thinkpad was already produced in oem by lenovo back in the 90’s
Did Lenovo and Fujitsu have some kind of relationship before that purchase? Because I have a Fujitsu pen that I use for my Lenovo laptop...did they go in together on a deal with Wacom or something?
This was honestly the most interesting thing I’ve watched in a while. Great job mate!
I believe that the Superfish issue was in the BIOS and was not fixable by a reinstall of the OS. Further, my understanding is that Lenovo apologized when this was discovered and said that this would never happen again. Six months (?) later it was found again, and the US Fed Govt shut down use of Lenovo, and I believe depressed both sales and reputation in the US for at least a few years. I remember colleagues buying (for personal use) Lenovo workstation-class laptops because the value-for-money was very high (compared to HP and Dell) because of their reputation. While it would appear that Lenovo learned their lesson about the potential cost (US Fed Govt says "don't turn on any Lenovo computer again"), you brush over the Superfish issue as though it had been nothing.
Superfish exploited a feature of Windows that allowed platform specific software to be installed from a link stored in the BIOS.
IIRC There was a workaround that involved creating a dummy file within /WIndows which made it think the software was already installed.
They may have removed the Superfish link from later BIOS revisions.
Yeah it's quite obvious when he shills (whether he gets paid or not) for these mainland products (he literally worked for Oppo as a foreign marketer so its been his trade). I don't live in either country but not any trust worthy of the US government or Chinese government eitherway.
Always thought Lenovo at the time got duped into adding the US-Israel program Superfish as a way for the CIA to get access.
install software from a link? What were Microsoft thinking?
Chinese people know Lenovo as an American company established in China
Did not know all these things, but I bought a lot of Lenovo devices because of their cheap prices compared to their features. They are also very high quality devices that keep on working without failing.
That Army officer concerned about an encrypted chip in a Lenovo laptop must be on his first IT assignment. There's an encrypted chip in every new PC. On Apple it's called Secure Enclave, on other brands its called Trusted Platform Module and is required by Microsoft. TPM was derived from a co-processor originally developed by ARM, a British company owned largely by a Japanese company, no Chinese companies involved.
An "encrypted" chip? Like ... what? That's nearly as wrong as "encrypted on the motherboard".
Enclave? ohh shit, here we go again
@@FuntimeByzantium YOU ARE OUT OF UNIFORM SOLDIER WHERE IS YOUR POWER ARMOR
@@bened22 The chip has a processor and storage. The processor encrypts keys and stores them in the memory. If the hidden serial number of the motherboard and processor match what the chip expects it will also decrypt what is in the storage. All happens on the same chip.
They all should be banned Chinese know this for ages
You consistently put out no fuss, insightful and interesting content. So many others add a lot of unecessary fluff
Thanks for this video, I've always wondered why Lenovo was exempt from all the sanctions
Their marketing leaders are doing a great job. It feels like a young, vibrant company while still keeping to the old designs and ideas. I really like the red square logo.
So far i think the only other real enterprise/business laptops out there are the elitebook and latitude from HP and Dell but the Thinkpad is still in a league of its own. It's got things like its keyboard with more ergonomic keycaps that no one else in the market has. Getting the thinkpad from IBM has to be one of the best acquisitions Lenovo has ever made.
Fujitsu Lifebook is also still relevant. It's also one of the few that still has a proper docks that links through the laptop bottom instead of over usb-c.
@Steamrick Never seen Fujitsu laptops 💻 in the UK, I wondered if the brand only sells in Japan
@XieRH1988 one of the worse decisions IBM ever made to sell their consumer electronics division
@@cryptocsguy9282 in the US, they are worked with primarily businesses, schools, medical.... for the most part it has more to do about their docks and security than anything.. well school is more about colleges but i think that is some sort of kickback
brother was frustrated his major made him buy a fujitsu laptop when his worked better
@@cryptocsguy9282 I sell laptops in the UK... Fujitsu is a second tier brand here but they have had models in every class for decades from budget to high performance workstation. There was also Toshiba who at one point were the absolute market leaders but they just fell off a cliff. I think the problem for mid-ranking major brands these days is that even the most basic laptop is "good enough" for consumers,so those built to a price will win market share on Price alone and those who need security, multimedia or other performance gains will still feel the need to buy Dell, HP and Mac lenovo have the brand recognition and they beat HP and Dell and Mac on price in their particular pricepoint
Sehr sehr cooles Video, da ich mir die Frage nach Lenovo schon immer gestellt habe. Gerade auch weil ich Thinkpads liebe :D
Thank you for this very informative review.
Fascinating analysis! A lot about Lenovo's inner workings that I didn't previously know.
One correction: Superfish was nastier than you describe... if you wiped and reinstalled Windows fresh, it would still install itself using the Windows Platform Binary Table -- basically a backdoor in the BIOS that was *intended* to install stuff like drivers or enterprise management software. Lenovo eventually backed down, but it was sketchy af, and I never trusted them again.
This video feels like something a Chinese agent would make. The way he handwavingly dismissed and try to downplay and discredit this and the other allegation by the high ranking military officer, is very, very suspicious.
Dell had the same thing to be fair. And superfish is from an Israeli firm; America's ally. All PC companies include bloatware.
@@tvacc6174if anything, this CZcamsr is hella anti china. Yet here you are saying that he’s suspicious
I see techAltar I Click. Incredible video as always ❤
Lenovo is trusted. They have proven their trust time and time again. They make good products. And they have been in the game for a long long time. And it's probably why they're still successful in North America.
This question had always perplexed me how beyond local manufacturing and generic components, how Lenovo never got on the wrong side..thanks
I keep recommending to my friends and acquaintances if they're buying a budget laptop with decent specs a refurbished Lenovo Laptop especially the T Series business lineup because of how durable their hardware, repairable to even consumers can disassemble and reassemble them with enough knowledge and their vast selection of spare part still available online.
ThinkPads will forever be the best laptops I have ever used
I was so disappointed in the recent years by ASUS, DELL & HP PCs. It is hard to admit that now Lenovo PCs perform better & look greater. Only Microsoft Surface line can competes with Lenovo PC line in quality & beauty but not the price. 😮💨
ThinkPads were reliable but so so so so so so ugly 🤢🤢🤮
@@duran9664 really? My X1 extreme
Is sexy AF! ❤
Too bad theyre owned by CCP china. Was the best laptop to use as linux geeks an alternative to using a mac.
@@duran9664 Lenovo just need to sort the square charging port. Absolute trash
I'm an architect I use a think pads for all my CAD work, I was always wondering that they are chinese yet appear very American in their marketing etc.
because ibm thinkpad
They want to hide it. Just like harbor freight using “Pittsburg” and American industrial names. Its pathetic.
Lenovo ownes the professional pc market, and that is their main market,
Lenovo is number one for the open source operating platform Linux, with it's ThinkPad. These days you will have a problem to installing Linux on any PC because of driver incompatibility. ThinkPad is made for Linux and it runs great on it.
I moved to China in 2002 and stayed there till 2008 (in Shenzhen of all places) but never saw the 天禧 computer with the wheel-button to start the internet connection.
I remember when IBM sold their thinkcenter servers to lenovo. They lost a lot of clients due to their support problems. IBM had great support for desktops and X86 servers. IBM kept their non intel servers in house and still make lots of money.
The support for Lenovo products goes true IBM. I know because thats what I do. Lenovo doesnt have its own support stucture (tehnically) for enterprise products , just deckstops. They have Primer and Product engineering but everything else goes true IBM.
I remember in the early 2000s when IBM sold their computer divisions to Lenovo.
That was the day we traded our IBM Red Books, for Mao's Red Book.
Here where I live, IBM owns the company that do the support for thinkpads and other brands too. Lenovo customer service is premium, at least the thinkpad division. Dell is a pain!
Thank you for the very well put story! However I have one remark: reinstalling windows won't work with reming any dangerous software because you need to install drivers at some point otherwise camera or fingerprint scanner won't work and than you will install proprietary binaries. I assume you know this so it makes me think that you missed it deliberately.
Lenovo has been in business for 30+ years. You people have been living under a rock.
Thanks for this video.
Nice job researching and explaining such a difficult topic.
I have been thinking of trying Nebula, but until today, the platform still doesn't have an AppGallery compliant app compatible with HMS Core.
Sadly, I won't be coming anytime soon.
😢
Lenovo was caught by multiple allied intel agencies back in 2011. Lenovo was knowingly and admittedly placing rootkits in their bios chips that would allow them to remote access the entire computer at any time they pleased. Security Software couldn't block this due to the rootkit having a legitimate DLS. A lot of companies and private companies in the US use Lenovo desktops and laptops. To say this is a huge national security threat would be a massive understatement.
And you believe the story about spy balloons?
@@monkeyking-self-proclaimed7050 Never said anything about the recent balloon incident. Major competitive allies and advisories alike constantly conduct espionage on each other.
The problem with Superfish was that it was on the BIOS. You could not remove it. It always came back.
Nice video, but I have a question. At 4:26, have you taken inflation into consideration?
I noticed in 2015 this ownership. Lenovo was a great value and reliable product. This is an excellent detail of the history. Thank you.
The IBM merger is why many don't even realize they are Chinese. Their decentralization makes them not feel Chinese at all.
There's also that they're from Hong Kong, which was politically separate from China until very recently when China decided the majority of representatives are now unelected and chosen by the CCP
@@My_Old_YT_Account they are never a democracy because they use the same system as the British left them
Because Lenovo is just a brand, they basically do not develop equipment programs, they only buy patented assembled computers and sell them under the brand, their business methods are well known in Chinese
@@My_Old_YT_Account Did we watch the same video ? They're based in Beijing, China, and all of their founders were from a State backed institution, Chinese Academy of the Sciences. They were only ipo'd in Hongkong in order to get easier access to foreign capital.
@@My_Old_YT_Account Also HK's leaders are not directly chosen (approving candidates is different) by the central government. Never have, probably never will as long as HK has a "border" with Shenzhen. Partial-democracy was only enacted 5 years before the 97 by the British (Out of spite I presume), who had been dictating the territory for a century, half-way around the world. Other than the recent massive reduction in freedom of speech and half of the legislature being voted in by business interests (A British policy), both of which I do not agree with, everything you said is false.
There are several custom software in the laptops, some of them compete with the operating system for managing your laptop 🤷🏼♂️
Well, Lenovo bought the IBM PC business, it is basically a PC assembler, using parts and chips from the US. Same is XiaoMi. Unlike Huawei, who is ahead of US tech company in some area, like 5G chip and mobile chip design.
6 years ago I was in community college in wa state. One thing I have saw there where a lot Chinese students going for computer science, engineering, wide array of technical disciplines. Now I am not surprised at all. There building some nice stuff. Competition at its finest. America forgot one thing hard work makes a nation rich and powerful.
And that one thing? It’s called IP theft.
crying about fake shit like IP lmfao
I love Lenovo. My university introduced the brand to me. I fell in love ever since.
@6:30 I think you got your map wrong there....... Its Morrisville NC, no clue where you got Riley from. Also you have the marker for it sitting out in Nebraska somewhere.
Because bruh couldn't even read a Wikipedia article...
A security guy told me the Lenovos had CPUs with altered firmware and they were prohibited from using them. That was quite a few years ago, probably all companies doing that now.
What altered firmware lol? Not in the CPU. Maybe the BIOS?
@@fanban2926 Yep, its an issue with the BIOS firmware.
The only thing in a CPU I’d worry about is Intel Management Engine and AMDs equivalent.
How do you know, is this thing a secret?
Lenovo is somewhat sanctioned. Back in mid 2000's the department of defense banned them because they had spyware on it. Hasnt stopped other agencies from buying them though. With the biggest story being the army buying some laptops a few years ago despite the ban/review.
Chinese software has backdoors~
@@sungjanedude, see a therapist. You are replying with the same comment over and over again
I LOVE my ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
It's absolutely the smoothest laptop I've used and has the trackpoint in the middle of the best feeling keyboard ever
Great info. Keep it up. That's how multinational companies work,
acer is my favorite company for laptops, although im considering medion as next lapptop, as it gives 2 tb of hdd and 256 of sdd laptop and acer is posing its 1 tb only laptop for range of 550 - 650 euro....
also wanted to say lenovo is accepted by USA because they are not as big as Hauwei, Hauwei basically had control of 5g networks and its phones were selling more than apple and samsung, they also had cars running with their stuff..... that was just too much for USA, USA just couldnt accept a chinese company that was superior to their companies so much...
just bought a lenovo 2tb usb 3.1 ssd for 35 euros including shipping to holland.... got it from a facebook ad... well just searched "lenovo ssd 2 tb usb" in google search and it found it for 28 dollars...
The Indians from India said that they are leading the world in terms of technology but I can't find any technological products from India that is even worth mentioning 😆
Basically all Accenture and Big 4 consultants I know of use Lenovo laptops at work.
What chip? Through what channel? How much input power? How many bitrate? Where is the receiver for that chip?
Watching this on my Lenovo Legion laptop & learning some interesting facts. I always knew Lenovo was a Chinese brand but I had no idea Blackrock had such a significant stake in the company.
same bro watching this on my legion laptop too
There is one crucial aspect that you left out. Lenovo, after buying IBM's Thinkpad line, has jacked up the selling price of its laptops, no matter the Thinkpad line or its original legend line products, in China domestic market. At the same time it dropped the Thinkpad price drastically in the market outside China. Folks in my age probably remember that Thinkpad from IBM used to be twice as expensive as Dell or HP. Lenovo was heavily criticized by industry leaders in China by making a large profit in China and using it to subsidize those outside of China. Its image in China is not a great one.
17% tax rebate from your government for exports sales.
Lenovo USED TO sell affordable products. Gone are the good old days. I hope more competitors enter the PC market and bring the prices down.
Thanks, Learnt a lot about Lenovo’s mixed ownership structure.
It's absurd how many people do not know Lenovo is a Chinese brand
I know from the start , i am surprised too that people do that atleast they should google about it
Shows how much you can trust their opinions. You can't.
😂In our eyes, Lenovo is not considered a high-tech enterprise, only DJI and Huawei can be counted, so the United States wants to ban them
I’ve been using a Lenovo Legion laptop for almost 5 years and had no idea it was a Chinese company. I had a vague recollection of the IBM acquisition in ‘04, but apparently I had misunderstood that story from the beginning - I’d always thought that Lenovo was simply spun off from IBM at that time. I thought the Lenovo name was just a rebranding of IBM’s Thinkpad division.
"Chinese software has backdoors."
Lenovo nickname in China: a company treat US great (美帝良心想).
Cause same model product in US is always cheaper than in China even if it is a Chinese company.
Yea, my last 2 laptops have been lenovos, less gamebreaking issues than HP (constant overheating and regular OS corruption), more weird ones (weird, unsupported parts), with better price to performance, but now I'll be saving up for a framework
I'm using Lenovo product since 2014 starting with an entry level phone followed by lower end laptop on the same year. 6 years later I brought another laptop from Lenovo. It is the most durable laptop compared to other brands like Acer, HP and others.
such a relevant topic ✌🏽️ very well done 👏🏼
I was always wondering why Lenovo survive this far with all politics around the tech lately, some ppl even don't know they are Chinese company and own Motorola
Thanks for your nice Informationen ❤
your last statement about lenovo's low profitability leading to it having higher acceptance reminds me of the old "slow and steady wins the race"
One thing that must be said is that when buying Lenovo stuff treat it as though it is 2 separate companies. There is the 'Think' line with is premium but they have excellent customer service and wonderful build quality. Then there is the everything else where it isn't so great. If you go for Thinkpads for instance, usually top notch devices.
We have tried a number of Lenovo devices and they have all been great quality. In the past we have had quality issues with Acer, Apple and even Dell, but have never had an issue with Lenovo. We have monitors, laptops, desktops and tablets and they are always great quality.
Lenovo gaming laptops are some of the best bang for your buck out there
Legion gaming laptops are also very good
I was so disappointed in the recent years by ASUS, DELL & HP PCs. It is hard to admit that now Lenovo PCs perform better & look greater. Only Microsoft Surface line can competes with Lenovo PC line in quality & beauty but not the price. 😮💨
@@mrmo3379 I absolutely get it, they can be great but when things go wrong it is clear there is a big difference. For instance, the Thinkpad side will over night pre-paid return postage for your stuff if anything goes wrong but with the other stuff it can be a lot longer. This is not to say Lenovo is bad, just that they have a schizoid kind of state.
Seeing as I have nothing but Lenovo laptops, clearly I am not that put off. Still better than almost everyone else.