Lenovo ships Olympics PCs a year early

The company recently knocked out a, ahem, limited edition ThinkPad with leather exterior.

Now the shtick has moved on the Beijing games with silver and black desktops carrying the “Lenovo Olympic Games composite logo”, that is the Lenovo brand plus Olympic rings. You know the ones. They look like the marks left by a pint glass on a Formica bar or an extended version of John Bonham's Led Zeppelin insignia.

Why bother?

According to Lenovo, the release marks "the one-year-out countdown" to the games. That's a hell of a long time to be counting down but you've probably guessed which Chinese PC maker is doing the sponsorship.

It's bad enough to come up with these brainstorms but the justifications are just digging a deeper hole. Apparently, the "black and silver exterior balances the traditional business colour black with the excitement and energy of the colour silver associated with home and lifestyle use".

Oh, belt up.

I don't know about you (well, how could I?) but I have an allergic reaction to PCs that have some daft theme or commemorative tie-in. I'm thinking in particular of that scarlet Acer Ferrari laptop thing that couldn't have been any more naff if it had a Playboy bunny stencilled on with the legend "I'm fat, 40, bald and having a midlife crisis". µ