ON THE ASCENT OF NOTEBOOKS OVER PCs

LEAP AHEAD

There are a lot of reasons why notebook sales have surpassed desktop PCs in recent years, and this Ars Technica piece discusses some of them.  It notes:

"2007 was undoubtedly the "Year of the Notebook." According to analysts, laptop shipments rose 21 percent to a total of 31.6 million units, while desktops sales dropped 4 percent to a total of 35 million units. IDC believes that 2008 will be the first year that notebook sales will exceed desktop sales and by 2011, it expects laptops to represent 66 percent of corporate purchases, with 71 percent of consumers picking a notebook instead of a tower."

The turning point seemed to be the following trend kicked off by Intel:

"But in recent years, notebooks have matched most desktops, and it's becoming much easier to find a desktop replacement from every major vendor that easily outpaces all but the more advanced towers.
Just three years ago, the concept of a desktop replacement was a pipe dream. Back then, the super-hot components running desktops were incapable of running in notebooks, while the industry was failing to address battery issues that plagued them and made them less-than ideal desktop replacements.

But with the availability of Intel's Core Duo and Core 2 Duo chips, all that changed. Power conservation became a key element in the newest generation of processor technology and that shrank the difference between desktop and laptop processors.

Now, the key differentiator between laptops and desktops is the number of cores and, for most uses, that doesn't have a big impact on performance. Unless more software is made that leverages multiple processing cores, desktops will lose the major advantage they have relied upon to stay relevant."

Of course, notebooks don't have the expandability promised by desktops, and generally, their graphics capabilities generall don't yet catch up to desktop PCs.  But despite those issues, the notebook is coming into it's own.

Comments

[Alex Tolley]

And just as notebooks are in the ascendancy, we see the rise of sub-notebooks and ultralights as true mobility becomes more important than luggability.