Lenovo Teams Up With Ingram, D&H for IdeaPad Line

The Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based PC vendor launched its Idea brand in January, selling it through retailers and e-tailers at first and then through Lenovo's web site and it will now be available to the channel through distribution.

Ingram Micro, Santa Ana, Calif., and D&H Distributing, Harrisburg, Pa., will distribute the IdeaPad U110 notebook, the IdeaPad Y510 notebook, the IdeaPad Y710 notebook and the IdeaCentre K210 desktop computer.

"We looked very closely at what Ingram and D&H could bring to this space and what they could do with the product line," said Sammy Kinlaw, director of distribution sales, North America, for Lenovo.

"It was natural in that D&H, for example, has very strong ties with the retail community. They have a huge breadth and offering within Tier 2 value-added resellers that may have a storefront with natural feet on the street walk-in traffic," Kinlaw said. "Campus resellers are also huge in that space. It was really easy for us to discern and come down with these folks being the right distributors for the product line."

With D&H, the company is hoping to reach the vertical markets the distributor accesses through its reseller customer base. "They have so many ties and established business into e-tail and into small retailers," said Kinlaw.

Michael Schwab, co-president of D&H Distributing, said that the deal with Lenovo will give the distributor a strategic advantage as it sells across Lenovo's product lines.

"Despite what's going on with the economy overall, the PC business and the notebook business continues to grow dramatically. Lenovo is now looking to really broaden the opportunity and leverage the reach that D&H has into its customer base that's really been looking for the product Lenovo is bringing to market," Schwab said.

"Lenovo has historically been positioned as a business segment product based on the feature set and the Think-branded identity. This expands that into a whole new customer base that may not have thought of Lenovo as their product of choice when they're thinking about their own personal needs from a consumer standpoint," Schwab said.

The Idea line is designed for the consumer and home-office markets and has VeriFace facial recognition capabilities, Dolby Home Theatre sound and touch-sensitive multimedia controls.

In the fall, the IdeaPad U330, Y430, Y530 and Y730 notebooks will also be available to the channel, Lenovo said.