They've been around since the early 1980s, but portable computers are finally taking over. Last year, for the first time, American consumers bought more of them than desktops. Sixteen of the 20 bestselling PCs on Amazon.com this holiday season were laptops.
U.S. corporations are expected to make laptops the majority of their computer purchases in 2008. BNSF Railway Co. already has. Of the 4,000 Dell Inc. computers it bought last year, 60 percent were laptops, so rail inspectors could file reports from their trucks and other employees could work from home.
'They were in a totally tethered world, and now they have no tethering at all,'said Jeff Campbell, the Fort Worth, Texas, company's chief information officer.
Faster, cheaper technology is behind the most sweeping change the computer industry has seen in a generation. Buying a computer that can be spirited away in a briefcase or backpack no longer requires a big sacrifice in performance, storage or money.
Through docking stations, users can connect laptops to external monitors, keyboards and mice while seated at a desk, then quickly move to a coffeehouse, library, airplane or living room.
The surge in laptop sales is also fueled by the pervasiveness of wireless networks in homes and public hangouts. Having ubiquitous Internet connections makes laptops much more useful.
And sales are expected to accelerate, as devices such as the iPhone and tablet PCs pack more power and utility into ever-smaller packages.
The notebook is propping up the computing industry. Analysts say U.S. laptop sales rose 21 percent in 2007 to 31.6 million, while desktop sales slumped nearly 4 percent to 35 million. Overall, laptops are still underdogs, but they're expected to account for the majority of U.S. computer sales in 2008 and of worldwide sales in 2009.
Article Source: sltrib.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment