I think the IBM should keep their Thinkpad, they do really are the best.
The new Lenovo Thinkpad keyboards are kinda feel like a cheap one from a corner shop... Even the Dell keyboard felt better. @.@

And for Sun, good god really don't know what Oracle will do to it (not just hardware, but software too) ...

The reason IBM sold of the hardware was because the margines were soo thin.
As for server hardware? They charge almost 2 grand for a kvm switch and monitor combo. Lenovo has had a hard time turning a profit the last few years I'm not sure if it would have been worth the hassel. As a service tech for IBM/lenovo partner; I love the hardware (thinkpads). Keyboards are the best and lenovo has been keeping up with the thinkpad tradition. Uncompromised business laptops. Funny thing is that I still get replacement warranty parts from the IBM depots.

IBM and Sun went diametrically opposite ways with hardware. IBM was probably happier than Sun with their decisions, but not all the Sun ideas were bad:
- Sun is selling mostly Intel (but no Itanium). Good for commodity sales but brand allegiance is weak.
- Sun outsourced SPARC manufacturing and has kept it as the same GHz level for almost 10 years. Jeez.
- Sun has strong product identity for its UNIX variant and key software pieces. Probably the best stuff about Sun!
- IBM abandoned Intel? Nope, they just stopped selling consumer boxes. They sell Intel servers against everyone (HP, Apple, Sun, everyone). They do sell a Power variant for PS3, though.
- IBM had developed Power to a very high degree. Core-per-core, they are the fastest, by a lot. They are FAR from the cheapest, though.
- IBM's UNIX doesn't have the strong association that Solaris has, but their WebSphere, Portal and DB2 are Top-3 in their respective fields.

Anything Sun can do,
IBM can do better.
IBM can do anything
Better than Sun.

IBM was correct in selling off the commodity PC business. Their expertise is in mission-critical systems. Any fool can build PCs, right Mikey?

Selling the low end stuff was the right move and not one which they are likely to regret given the very low margins you get from this type of hardware. IBM's strategy is to go for higher margins as far as possible. They didn't sell "the hardware business", they just stopped selling the commodity end.

The only disadvantage I see is that the users don't see your logo every time they look at the screen.

For once I actually see myself agreeing with you Nick. IBM made a big mistake of selling of its hardware business to Lenovo.