When it comes to computers, I can only think of a handful of people that I'd recommend purchasing a desktop over a notebook.
That includes students, parents, amateur photographers, teachers, salesman, engineers, musicians, and on and on.
I have a couple friends that work through huge digital photos where a desktop makes sense--and some engineers too--but more and more the cost benefit of a desktop and notebook is swaying towards the notebook.
Why? For one, it's easier to manage. Take a small business, for instance. A person using a notebook is a lot easier to shuffle around as space is shuffled or employees come and go. Notebooks have fewer components to tweak. They either work of they don't. With a desktop everyone is too tempted to plug-in and play with new components--and getting them to work hours later. Lost productivity.
Those that deal with lots of repetition--that's typically located all in one place--probably is a better match for a desktop--but this is not the case for most of us. Most people are naturally mobile--even when they think they are desktop bound.
I remember a couple years ago, when the Tablet PC first came out. There was lots of criticism of its mobile nature. It was too mobile some were concerned. That's turned out not to be the case. The opposite it true. In fact, I'd like to see Tablets lead the way in even more mobility--in terms of connectivity, in terms of battery life, in terms of display quality, in terms of sharing.
Anyway, I saw a news segment the other night and it reminded me of all of this. In an office suite where the segment was being taped, every single computer was a notebook. It makes total sense.
Now should large corporations go with notebooks or the more traditional desktops? For call centers, maybe desktops are better. You can get better viewing angles and tweak the keyboard to be just so if it's separate from the display---however, these benefits may be fleeting. For light commercial work, the world very well may go "light" with detachable keyboards and adjustable displays. If the prices come down, so will the days of the desktop. I think the days of the desktop are numbered.


Incremental Blogger