By Sylvia Carr, 16 December 2005 13:45
NEWS
It is only a matter of time before laptops outnumber desktop PCs in most organisations.
In a recent poll of 279 silicon.com readers, 72 per cent said laptops will overtake desktops at some point in the future.
The majority expect the shift to come quite soon, with nearly two-thirds of respondents saying it'll happen within the next five years. Of those, approximately 10 per cent said laptops will outnumber desktops in one year, 18 per cent in three years and 15 per cent in five years.
Computer towers are already becoming obsolete at many organisations, with about one in five respondents saying laptops already outnumber PCs in their workplace.
Yet it's obviously not every business that prefers laptops, as 28 per cent of silicon.com readers say portables will never be more popular than desktops.
What do you think? You can still cast a vote in our ongoing poll.
Comments
There are 2 comments. Join the discussion
1. Joe Whitehead
Actually, I think in 5 years most of the desktops WILL be laptops in disguise but with a large docking station. There are laptop based computers that have no keyboard or monitor - they're strictly for a standup PS2-style tower setting. :)
Optiplex I believe is one of many lines that computer makers sell.
My AMD desktop is using an AMD XP-Mobile CPU because it runs a lot cooler and saves electricity. It also will last longer since it doesn't overheat and is less likely to cause the power supply to fail.
2. Mark Sampson
It is quite sensible that laptops would outnumber PC's for functionality and protability as the available specifications increase and prices decrease, but that is not the full story behind PC's - and with the advent of ever increacing acapcity on portable media like memory sticks and USB powered Hard Drives, the portability issue may well be less of an issue.
One area of concern that almost all PC users have is the number of viruses caught when surfing the web, which can often cause the requirement to format all drives and restore the operating system from scratch. With a laptop you are saying goodbye to any unsaved work and in the case of killer viruses you maybe lose some expensive internal hardware to boot.
With the old faithful desktop PC, there is always the option of running two machines side by side, using a switch for your screen and keyboard, where one machine accesses the internet and the other keeps all your work nice and safe from harm.
Specific machines are being released to allow this in a more simple format, ie: one case but two machines, like the Amstron Duo range being released in January from Amstron Computers, but nowhere can I find a laptop version of the like and I do feel that with the penetration of the internet into homes will cause a real need for this type of physical barrier to infestation in addition to the less reliable AV software.
The lack of low cost upgrade options to laptops may also hinder their takeover bid against the desktop as the speed of processor and peripheral development becomes hard for even geeks to keep on top of whilst software developers continue to write beyond the ever increasing limits of the hardware.