Robert X. Cringely dissects the IBM-Lenovo deal and hits the nail on the head: this is all about access to China’s huge IT market, not disposing of a less than profitable PC division.
Winners in this deal are IBM, Lenovo, AMD, and Dell. Lenovo instantly doubles its market share. AMD eats away just a little bit more at Intel’s power base. Dell, as the true PC market leader, will rely on its lower overhead to further hurt HP.
Losers in the deal are HP, Intel, and Sun. Especially Sun. Those guys are in trouble.
IBM’s playing chess, the others are still playing checkers.