Legendary Ford founder Henry Ford once said about the T model, "You can paint it any color, so long as it's black. This philosophy was his design guidance line, and for many years, a similar philosophy has been held among the three biggest PC manufacturers' in the world: Dell, Hewlett-Packard and for the former IBM business, owned now by Lenovo. Apple, Sony, Vodoo, Alienware, all introduced stylish designs, but the standards for the incumbents on the market were represented by either black or gray.
Lately, that magnificent strategy and standard in the same time has started to change. Custom specialists have found out that, like '70 were the years of reconstructing car industry, in the design and color schemes' matter, now the time has come for laptops. These can be seen now as potent style statements. Dell's new XPS Pc, which was presented at the Consumer Electronics show featured a flashy case design, and Dell has begun lately to sell notebook covers along with the laptops, and they started to add colors and create new logos for their products. Livestrong notebook, released by HP features Lance Armstrong's signature and they are moving towards a new customer strategy, which will alow consumers to customize the laptops they buy, and make them exactly how they want. Intel also showed a line of laptops which used Ultrasuede fabric in the casing.
Custom designs are a pretty new concept in PC's industry. High-tech designs are customized looks and designs are still the sign of different people, and this makes the difference between the customers. There are the people who want the laptop to represent them very well, and there are also the people who conform to what the seller offers, and don't think or don't have enough courage to ask for more.
There was a change movement in the desktop PCs sector, but now that laptops are fast growing in market shares, a lot of people are trying to customize as much as possible their portable devices. Even in the mobile phones industry you can see that more and more people are trying to get rid of the common boring black and grey looks for their devices. A lot of people prefer to buy the phones in the classic form and then pimp them with new faces, keyboard buttons, they paint them and give them a personal touch. This is happening also with the laptops. Even if a lot of people still buy the classic models, this doesn't mean that in short time they don't change the look. Many of them get skins for the laptops, or re-paint them. Skyn is a company which makes colorful laptop covers, and they are special because they can be used on multiple laptops. Letitia Lucero, Skyn co-founder was looking few years ago for a colorful laptop, able to represent her inner side, but she didn't find anything she liked, nothing to fit her preferences. After experimenting with more materials, she discovered with her husband, Miguel, an interesting type of plastic which stays up to the wear and tear on notebooks. An adhesive applied on the back allows the cover to be removed and changed on another laptop. Inclosia Solutions and Tulip Distribution International Holding released a series of laptops which are covered with leather, and they are also planning laptops covered with fabrics and denim.
If you don't like the color that the manufacturer chose for your device, you can ask the guys from Colorware to paint the device you bought, or you can buy a new one which fits your color preferences. The painting process takes a few days, but in the end you will have the laptop you dreamt about. I think that students and programmers like this, because they are the most open people to expressing creativity, they like expression freedom, and they definitely like to have a special computer. Artists also like different things, and maybe you will see colorful laptops on some billionaire desk, a person who is already bored of all classic designs and color schemes for laptops on the market.
There is another aspect which is worth to be discussed. Ok, you have a colorful laptop, but would you go to a job interview with it? There are people in this world who think just like you, and they agree with freedom of expression, and they like to see customized items which represent the person they are talking to, but there are also grumpy bosses who burst into fire when they see the smallest sign of revolution or creativity. I doubt that you will see an accountant who will carry a purple laptop, with Superman on the lid, or a woman marketing manager with Barbie or Sarah Jessica Parker on her pink laptop lid. In my opinion, customizing your laptop in this way allows you to stand out a little more, and show people that you have a bit of fun and creativity in the work you do. Being sleek and professional is great, but being creative, next to these is much more than cool.
Anyway, I think that professionalism has almost nothing to do with the color of the laptop you carry, and even more, not with the color of your hair. We, as a culture, are focused on the external aspects to determine the inner person. It is true that the outside represents the inside, but not all the assumptions directioned from outside to inside are relevant, and I think that a deeper analysis is required.
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Saturday, February 20, 2010
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