Techaisle Analyst Insights

The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 4, launched at CES 2024, is a highly anticipated device that lives up to the hype. This ultra-portable notebook is a testament to the advancements in AI PC technology and showcases Intel's new Meteor Lake Ultra 9H processor and an AI-specific NPU. It offers a compelling package for SMBs, with its unique selling points being its sophisticated design, dual-toned top cover, ultralight portability, the world’s first 13-inch laptop with a 74-WHr battery, and a nice balance between power and style.

My first encounter with the Thinkbook brand was with a Thinkbook Plus Gen 1 in November 2019. The notebook's 'Think' pedigree, focus on the SMB segment, and the unexpected E-Ink screen on the lid piqued my interest. It was an intriguing design. Fast forward to September 2022, and the innovation difference between the Gen 1 and Gen 3 was nothing short of exponential. The ultrawide display on a laptop made multitasking more accessible and allowed users to see more content with fewer distractions. The massive and roomy display is a visual treat, a productivity enhancer, and ideal for Windows 11 snap layout. Straddling the line between business, work, and life, ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 boasted Dolby Vision for lifelike images, blue light reduction, and 2 X 2W Harman Kardon audio for superior sound.

My latest experience with a Thinkbook incarnation, the ThinkBook 13x Gen 4, is a testament to the brand's commitment to mobility. The ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 notebook model I am using features a 13.5-inch, 2.8K HDR400 display with Dolby Vision, making for smooth and vibrant visuals, Anti-Glare, Non-Touch, 500 nits. It also has EyeSafe low blue light certification, ensuring a comfortable and productive user experience. On the audio side, it includes four Harman Kardon speakers with built-in smart amplifiers and Dolby Atmos certification for immersive sound.

Weighing just 2.56 lbs and measuring a mere 0.5 inches thick, the ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 is designed for easy portability. Its thin profile is not a compromise on durability - the ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 is built to endure the bumps and knocks of everyday travel, instilling a sense of reliability and trust. Its aluminum finish and tastefully designed logo give it a look of sophistication that belies its price. The laptop's design ensures it sits comfortably on the lap without feeling top-heavy, making it an ideal companion for flights, daily commutes, or working on a couch in a work-at-home setting. The Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 is great for mobile professionals seeking a sleek and portable laptop and users who appreciate a high-quality build. Its combination of performance, portability, and premium design make it a top choice for a wide range of users. It has a Copilot key, which provides the ability to quickly and easily access Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant directly from the laptop's keyboard.

A new type of computer is gaining traction: the Artificial Intelligence-powered PC, or AI PC for short.  At Microsoft Build 2024, Microsoft and its leading PC partners, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, unveiled a new class of laptops, Copilot+ PCs, explicitly built for artificial intelligence (AI).  These laptops are powered by powerful Snapdragon® X Plus processors, exceeding 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), and deliver long-lasting battery life and access to cutting-edge AI models. 

The personal computer market is undergoing a significant shift, and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and upper midmarket companies are paying close attention.  A recent study by Techaisle, covering 1410 SMBs and Midmarket firms in the US, suggests a potential surge in demand for these innovative machines within these business sectors. 

High Awareness Paves the Way for Adoption

The study reveals a high level of awareness and purchase intention among SMBs and midmarket firms, painting a promising picture of the market potential of AI PCs. A significant 77% of SMBs and an impressive 86% of upper midmarket firms are already familiar with AI PCs, demonstrating a high level of awareness and understanding of the potential benefits of AI technology for their productivity and operations. This awareness is not just passive, as the study reveals that a substantial 32% of SMBs and a much higher 64% of midmarket firms are actively planning to purchase AI PCs, indicating a strong market potential and the confidence these businesses have in the technology. This robust purchase intention signals a significant market shift and underscores the potential for widespread adoption in the near future. Moreover, 40% of SMBs are considering evaluating AI PCs before making a purchase decision, hinting at the possibility of even broader adoption in the coming years.

AI PCs are projected to dent the PC market within 3-5 years substantially. SMBs, known for their agility in responding to market trends, will likely mirror this trend. With 54% of SMBs planning to invest in new PCs in the next 12 months, AI PCs could become a decisive factor in purchasing decisions.

The study also uncovers some intriguing insights into SMB priorities. While 14% of SMBs view AI PCs as a crucial upgrade, and another 12% are considering a strategic shift towards them, a substantial portion (24%) see no compelling reason to adopt this new technology. However, 58% of SMBs report that their employees are actively requesting AI PCs. This highlights a potential disparity between management and employees regarding the perceived benefits of AI technology, suggesting the need for better communication and alignment.

The study identifies potential early adopters of AI PCs within the employee base. These are the content creators, tech-savvy departments, and executives in corner offices. Creative and design professionals top the list (45%), followed by IT development (27%) and sales and marketing teams (26%). These departments will likely benefit most from AI PCs' enhanced processing power and AI-powered features.

Copilot Gains Traction, But Snapdragon Faces Recognition Hurdle

The Techaisle study delves deeper, exploring the potential for Copilot, a new software solution designed to unlock the true power of AI PCs. Awareness is high, with over half (54%) of SMBs and a staggering majority (89%) of upper midmarket firms recognizing the name.  Despite its recent launch, nearly half of these businesses already know about Copilot+ PCs.

However, adoption intent dips regarding Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. This hesitation stems from a few key factors. Limited brand awareness compared to the established giant Intel is a significant hurdle. Concerns about compatibility with existing applications and potential issues with peripherals further dampen enthusiasm. Many SMBs are adopting a wait-and-see approach, holding out for the announcement of Intel-based Copilot+ PCs, hoping these systems will offer similar features and impressive battery life.

Despite the growing hype around AI PCs, the study reveals some interesting realities regarding PC selection criteria for SMBs. While GPU/NPU might be a consideration, it does not reign supreme. For SMBs, the top five priorities when choosing a PC remain long battery life, a processor with built-in security features, ample storage capacity, a high-resolution display, and biometric login options.

Pandemic has changed how businesses operate, employees work, customers purchase and goods/services get delivered. This has also changed how small and midmarket firms are evaluating their core, cloud and edge technology needs to address their accelerated digital transformation objectives of cost efficiencies, operational excellence, innovation, business growth, organizational empowerment and customer intimacy. Clearly, core infrastructure has evolved to meet future digital transformation demands, but the question is how are small businesses and midmarket firms planning to adopt forward-facing solutions, like Artificial Intelligence, 5G, AR/VR, IoT, analytics and several others. There is a general sense within the SMBs that these advanced solutions will increase insight into and control over key aspects of their business operations and deliver benefits in different ways and to different ends.

Remaining true to the core belief of tracking the future of SMBs and channel partners, Techaisle studied global SMBs to determine future, planned and likely adoption patterns of several technology areas. The study of SMB and Midmarket digital transformation trends identified top 15 technology categories where the adoption growth rates will likely be highest in the next six months to a year. There are some surprises, for example, chatbots (for customer responsiveness), 5G (for enhanced mobility), open source (for cloud management, modernization and lower TCO), AI (for customer experience, security, operations) and several expected, for example, SD-WAN, HCI, WVD/VDI/DaaS and UCaaS.

Techaisle’s 2015 SMB and Midmarket Mobility Solutions Adoption study shows that the trend towards increased diversity and sophistication of mobile app portfolios within SMBs is driving a concurrent requirement for enterprise mobility management solutions capable of automating management, security and infrastructure associated with complex mobile portfolios.

Although much of the public debate around mobility involves hardware brands and feature sets and overall penetration rates and even BYOD (which is now passé), the real business benefit of mobility is delivered via applications that address specific task requirements within the business, and mobility management solutions that overlay the management and security structures needed to integrate these apps with corporate IT systems.

Figure below provides a snapshot of current and planned usage of mobility solutions. It shows that today, use of mobility solutions has crossed 50% in the small business segment, and that aggressive 2015 purchase plans – especially amongst 1-9 employee and 10-19 employee microbusinesses – will boost this figure closer to 80% in the near term. Initial penetration is nearly complete within midmarket enterprises, where well over 90% report current use of mobility solutions.

Focusing on Enterprise Mobility Management Solutions

Consider the perspective included in the figure below. The left-hand text box includes eight mobility application categories predicted (by the Techaisle SMB 2015 Mobility survey) to have the greatest increase in adoption in the next one year. Half of the list is comprised of advanced applications: web/video conferencing (foundational), location-enabled applications and mobile marketing and advertising (emerging technologies) and business intelligence (second-order application). The SMB mobile application portfolio is both growing explosively and becoming more complex.

The right hand side of figure highlights the top mobility management solutions that SMBs are investing in to automate control of these sprawling assets. This list includes security solutions (MDM, mobile app security, secure mobile data sharing) that address widespread concern over the exposure that accompanies mobility, as well as methods of automating management (mobile network control, enterprise mobile management) and of deploying infrastructure tuned to the needs of mobile workers (Windows-as-a-Service, thin clients). Also included on this list is email, which is in the process of making the leap from an application that is accessed remotely to an integrated solution that connects seamlessly across environments and devices – a progression that will likely occur with other applications (especially foundational applications) over time.

This link between more sophisticated mobile deployments and the need to invest in mobility solutions to provide for management, security and infrastructure is apparent in survey data outlining SMB use of and investments in mobile solutions.

However, mobility management solutions are not a “set it and forget it” type of technology. These solutions require continuous tuning and ongoing investment as their scope expands to match the burgeoning requirements of an increasingly-complex mobile environment. Techaisle 2015 SMB Mobility study data also captured expenditure levels for mobility solutions by employee size. Comparing this data and connecting the dots with Techaisle’s other data on cloud, virtualization, managed services and analytics we find that mobility drives increased IT investment, especially amongst small businesses and as a market force, mobility “grows the pie” of IT spending in the overall SMB market.

Upcoming blogs on SMB Mobility:

• Mobility solution providers: not limited to traditional IT suppliers – VMware AirWatch, Citrix and IBM MaaS360 become important
• What drives mobility solution supplier evaluation, especially in the midmarket?
• What are the SMB IT challenges associated with mobile workforce support?