June 23, 2011 at 8:37 am

The First IBM ThinkPad Was a Paper Notebook

*Secret Revealed*

IBM’s first notebook computer went on sale in 1992. The name ThinkPad was borrowed from a notebook they already made — a paper notebook.

In the 1920s, IBM’s corporate slogan was “THINK!”

For inspiration, employees and customers were given paper notebooks with the word “THINK” embossed in the cover.

While on a coffee break, IBM researcher Denny Wainwright was inspired by the notepad and came up with the name for their notebook computer line, “ThinkPad.” In fact, the idea for the notebook computer was first conceptualized on the paper inside one of the brown leatherette notepads.

In 2005, IBM sold the ThinkPad brand for approximately $1.75 billion. While they’re not known for style, both IBM and Lenovo manufactured ThinkPads are renown for high quality and reliability.

Chad Upton is the editor-in-chief of Broken Secrets and an official Yahoo Answers contributor.

Photo: Chris Metcalf

Sources: Lenovo, ACL, Wikipedia (ThinkPad, Lenovo)

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Chad
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  1. Cool

    Comment posted on June 23rd, 2011 at 10:31 am by Bob

  2. I already knew this, as I am typing on a thinkpad now

    Comment posted on June 23rd, 2011 at 11:48 am by Craigyas

  3. Interesting! I’m using a Thinkcentre right now, myself. Granted, it’s quite ugly — but serviceable!

    Comment posted on June 24th, 2011 at 3:22 am by Audrey

  4. A paper notebook and a pen can still often be one of the most productive tools at an engineer or designers fingertips.

    There is a myth that the latest and greatest technology always makes someone more creative or productive.

    Some of the most important discoveries and inventions of our era were sketched on the back of an envelope or a napkin.

    Comment posted on June 24th, 2011 at 12:08 pm by Joe Mammy

  5. Wow, these pads are just great. I have an IBM thinkpad from like 2000… 512mb ram p4 processor… The thing still runs better than most laptops I’ve used today.

    All my other laptops burned out from intense use while this one sticks in. I heard they use some type of black magic to make these things work like they do!

    Science my butt… more like magic.

    Comment posted on June 24th, 2011 at 2:21 pm by I gotz one

  6. I have one of those note pads. I got it in the late ’60s or early ’70s. THINK was an IBM slogan for many years. I retired from IBM after 30 years in 1995.

    Comment posted on June 24th, 2011 at 7:10 pm by Rod

  7. Wow, I really never thought about this…. In fact I even worked with HCL for quite sometime and kept toying with several brand names for new laptops! This is so interesting to know .. Thanks Chad for sharing it.

    Comment posted on June 24th, 2011 at 10:13 pm by Rashmi

  8. I used to have one of those. I lost it some years back and have been looking for another one ever since.
    Do you where I can buy one?

    Comment posted on June 25th, 2011 at 8:18 am by Marc

  9. im wondering

    Comment posted on June 25th, 2011 at 12:49 pm by raquelle

  10. The IBM ThinkPad was a copy of the Apple Newton which came out in 1987.

    Comment posted on June 25th, 2011 at 2:42 pm by Mike

  11. My Dad carried one of those pads in his pocket for about 40 years. I’ve carried one like it just about forever.
    Invaluable little things. And, unlike a computer, they never “die”. Of course, they’re pretty easy to misplace.
    If anyone knows where to get a new one, please let us know.

    Comment posted on June 25th, 2011 at 6:14 pm by Bruce Audretsch

  12. Thats cool

    Comment posted on June 25th, 2011 at 10:36 pm by molly

  13. Found this interesting.
    Interesting indeed.
    Rightly so…
    Seems a bit odd, though.
    That is that, then.

    Comment posted on June 26th, 2011 at 12:21 am by The Lord of Darkness

  14. knom knom knom

    Comment posted on June 26th, 2011 at 12:07 pm by Risa

  15. Sweet!
    I have a Lenovo IdeaPad :)
    Thanks for posting.

    Comment posted on June 27th, 2011 at 6:01 am by Bryce

  16. I never knew that at all, funny how something so innocuous as a pad of paper can change the world :)

    http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Impress-Talent-Judges

    Comment posted on June 27th, 2011 at 9:32 am by Phil

  17. the intellectual property of the travelling light brief case ipad is not a 1992 issue. the extra flexible extra light pad with all your oofice documents recallable retrievable and reamendable through an additional central transmission unit additional to to a dual core central processsing uniot for sped recall and efficiency is not of a 1990s duration. the an ipad which is fingerprint efficient for security on touch screen and can carry out bank and cashpoint transactions from prearrangement and has your car and home security alarms as well as your lighting system and door locks is not the archaic ancent mechanism you are talking about. When fully evolved all anybody ever needs to carry lightly is your ipad. Phone ,camera ,books ,documents , transactions , wolork documents everything with which were gigabyte storage limitation is dealt with in an online extra secure finger print storage mechanism and transmissaable and retrievable and workableon files stored trransmiisably etc….LTZ

    Comment posted on June 27th, 2011 at 10:53 am by LTZ

  18. Interesting. I want to know what is the simplest, comprehensive device (i can afford). I love the idea of these things that does all this stuff, but have lost hope of ever knowing how to operate the magical things.

    Comment posted on June 27th, 2011 at 3:34 pm by Sherri

  19. i’m confused…shouldn’t the title be “The First IBM ThinkPad Was [INSPIRED By] a Paper Notebook?”

    Comment posted on June 27th, 2011 at 10:04 pm by curiousgeorge

  20. Heck why not just use the computer

    Comment posted on June 28th, 2011 at 12:17 am by David

  21. got to love the ibm thinkpad i have 20 of them found them in the trash one day on the job so i asked why they was there than was told mi could have them so i took them home called ibm they sent me the disks for 30 bucks the cool this is they had been sold as a pacgae deal so all 20 of them run on the same key from windows man on man did i get blessed the ibm thinkpad t41 i have have to say for how old there r and where i found them my gof the run better than the new stuff i have infact i sold my new stuff i found no need to have it after i got them disks from ibm i should also tell the reader that ibm has one for the best sev plp out there they are great in helping u get ur needs taken care of ty ibm for staying a strong co… and for the way u treat plp

    Comment posted on June 28th, 2011 at 11:53 am by hank

  22. I went to Pen State and they had those, back then many people think it was amazing compared on what we have today.

    Comment posted on June 28th, 2011 at 2:05 pm by Bob

  23. I thought it sound MIB, Men in Black’s slogan “headin’ to the wild wild west”.

    Comment posted on June 30th, 2011 at 3:02 pm by ChaGirlDanceRock

  24. i like to be among of those people who use ibm to solve people’s problems.

    i need some infrmation for this.

    Comment posted on July 2nd, 2011 at 6:53 am by filbert fulgency

  25. I worked at IBM in Manassas, VA in the late 80s and I remember 8 1/2 by 11 inch pads of white paper, and at the top of each sheet was printed THINK!

    Comment posted on July 2nd, 2011 at 8:19 am by Ginger

  26. I already knew this story as it was told to me by a former employee. The real mystery to me is why the Thinkpads were so great when everything else IBM made (at least in the 80′s on) was/is complete crap.

    Comment posted on July 5th, 2011 at 6:09 pm by George Dylan

  27. That is great but this is 2011

    Comment posted on July 6th, 2011 at 2:37 pm by Michelle

  28. :)

    Comment posted on July 6th, 2011 at 5:50 pm by savannah

  29. actually the urban myth goes like that, an executive pinned up on a mesage board a sticker saying THINK, the next day there was another sticker under it saying OR THWIM

    Comment posted on July 7th, 2011 at 6:14 am by amosc

  30. IBM products always have a place consumers because of its reliability and sophistication.

    Comment posted on July 7th, 2011 at 8:42 pm by raharja

  31. I have an IBM Lenovo IdeaPad too , and work on it right now…

    Comment posted on July 8th, 2011 at 2:47 pm by keneth Huntington

  32. My first computer was a ThinkPad 560 from 1997, and it was thinner than a lot of laptops even in 2005.

    I’m still happily using a ThinkPad z61t… maxed out with 3 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive. Not the speediest machine any more, but it’s about as good as new. I actually like the black, no-nonsense look (as opposed to the flashier consumer-grade laptops).

    Comment posted on July 8th, 2011 at 5:52 pm by nookkin

  33. As a former employee, I can tell you, there was a ‘THINK’ sign on nearly every employees desk.

    Comment posted on July 11th, 2011 at 4:30 pm by Ed Tommola

  34. I have two T40 ThinkPads and they the greatest laptop I have every used.

    Comment posted on July 12th, 2011 at 2:58 pm by Ronda

  35. IBM you have been doing a good and i will like to sport to you to exceed forever,in order to became No one in the world.

    Comment posted on July 14th, 2011 at 9:05 am by Shamsi Haruna

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