In the past year (2009-2010), more than 50% of sold computers worldwide, had been laptop computers. What is causing this change of customer habits?
To start figuring this out, we’ll have to start comparing between the two:
Pros :
Desktop : Higher performance for lower cost, Can be adjusted physically in a more easy way for its user, as in adding additional DVDs, the way it looks, the size of screen you want attached, the ability to upgrade some of its parts in an easy safe way instead of having to buy a new one or being forced to hand it over and pay extra money for upgrading, a huge variety of accessories.
Laptop : Mobility, its size and weight lets you carry it anywhere, from class to the living room, its already built in WiFi card lets you surf the web almost from anywhere, the lack of need in cables helps you maintain a more organized working space, quiet while working, most models are fashionable and make your workspace looks more professional, use less electricity.
Cons :
Desktops : Wires – a desktop requires a lot of wires and if not being extremely organized with them, the first time you have to unplug one of them might end up finding a never ending string of wires, which also makes your working place a mess, desktops are not mobile to say the least, and moving them takes much time and effort, desktop use much more electricity, for wireless access you must buy an additional accessory, desktop tends to get noisy while working after a while and need to be cleansed from the inside.
Laptops : The price is much higher than desktops considering its components, tends to overheat faster, short life battery on laptops used for high performance programs and games, keyboard is not full on most laptops (no numpad), much more breakable, some laptops comes with no DVD drive, not all accessories fit to laptops, in case of an upgrade needed on hardware – its needed to be done by a professional which charges more money, if possible at all – you might have to buy a new laptop.
That’s just a short review of pros/cons list. Those might be the reasons people go with either, but for sure they are not the main issue here. The way I see it, the key to the change is simply us, the customers. The more people are exposed to laptops, they want those. The laptop is, in a lot of potential customers’ eyes, an accessory, or maybe a gadget, letting you use a computer and work on your files or games in other places other than just home or work. Yeah, mobility was placed within the pros/cons list, but people see mobility as a part of the gadget. As a matter of fact, the big jump in laptop sales started after the new generation of notebooks came out.
Now what differs notebooks from laptops you ask? The notebook is an even smaller laptop (screen size goes from 9’ to 12.1’), they are less powerful, and even lighter. Those notebooks are used almost entirely for web surfing and office work. Their size lets you carry them in a small handbag instead of the big side bags or backpacks, and work for much longer times (recent models claims to be able to work for from 9 hours and up to 11 at times!). They are the perfect tool for a student, sitting in class, just typing or recording whatever his professor saying, in a nice order and at peace. With USB technology, if theirs is an experiment, or some diagram which is also needed to be copied, the student can simply use his camera (built in notebook, accessory camera or simply from his mobile phone) and move it into the notebook, putting the picture right next to the place it needs to be in the document he was writing. That simple, that organized. Another example, an office worker has no internet access from his working computer, yet wants to check up on his kids at home as he has a web camera to see everything is alright while the kids are by themselves. He simply opens up his notebook, connects to the net and makes his check.
Again, I would not say this is the end of desktops, even though some analysts are claiming this way, it’s simply a matter of fashion. As written above, the laptops and notebooks are more of a gadget to people, real work will remain on desktops.
I hope this was informative,
Yours,
Tomer