Lenovo to launch education-focused PC bundles

Lenovo Canada, together with select Canadian university bookstores and resellers, will offer PC bundles for the back-to-school shopping season, targeting students and the education market.

Jordan Buck, an account executive for Lenovo in Canada, said for the back-to-school season, the company usually offers product bundles to its resellers and customers.For this school year, Buck said Lenovo has three different PC bundles available, which target the higher education and grades K-12 markets.

The Canadian universities that will be selling these bundles include Dalhousie University in Halifax, York University in Toronto, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Ont.

"These bundles allow students to tailor them according to what they want," he said. "Most of our bookstores are Lenovo-certified so they do service and support on the gear already. These (bundle) offerings are an extension of this."

Lenovo will also be counting on its resellers to help deliver the PC bundles to the K-12 education levels, Buck said.

The PC bundles, which include a desktop, netbook and monitor bundle, is priced at $999. The other bundles are priced at either $899 or $999. All of the demo units that will be at Dalhousie University and York University will also come with Microsoft Windows 7, Buck added.

The first bundle consists of Lenovo's ThinkCentre A58 desktop, IdeaPad S10e netbook and a ThinkVision L197w monitor. The desktop features an Intel processor, 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard disk drive. The IdeaPad S10e netbook comes with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, along with a three-cell lithium ion battery, among other things.

"This bundle is designed for the students that aren't power users," Buck said. "These are students that want to have a desktop at home or in the dorm, but they also want a mobile device with a netbook that they can take to class. The external monitor can stay in the student's home or dorm for more heavy work."

The second bundle is a more robust offering for students who spend more time engaging in multimedia activities outside of the classroom, Buck explains.

Bundle two comes with Lenovo's ThinkPad SL500 notebook, a ThinkVision L2240p 22-inch wide LCD monitor, and a choice of another product such as a wireless keyboard and mouse combo, an extra nine-cell battery, an external 160GB USB hard drive, the option of upgrading to a 24-inch LCD screen monitor, and more.

Lastly, bundle three includes Lenovo's G530 notebook, a ThinkVision L2240p 22-inch wide LCD screen, in addition to one of the choices that are also available in bundle two.

"This bundle is meant to be more of a mainstream, introductory-type of laptop that's in between a netbook and laptop," Buck said.

The Lenovo G530 comes with features such as, 3GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive and a six-cell lithium ion battery.

These PC bundles will be available from selected Canadian university bookstores before the school year begins in September, Buck said. The bundles will also be distributed by Lenovo's channel of resellers, so that they may also sell them to the K-12 grades.