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Chris Jacob
Mmmm... that's pretty flimsy data to be making such a sweeping conclusion upon.
For one thing, does 'notebook' include 'netbook'? That's a huge growth area and is targetted at people who want the most bang for the buck - just the thing people want in a recession.
Take out the netbook component and see if notebooks do so well.
Also... am I the only one who finds it incredibly annoying to use a notebook for too long? I'd kill myself if that was my primary computer. The things get very hot and the screens on even the largest of laptops (which create more heat and are hardly laptops/notebooks) still balk in comparison to my 24" monitor...
@BacteriaEP: In 2003, I bought a really nice, really expensive laptop because I was going on a military deployment for 6 months, and needed to upgrade my old-ass compaq. After I got home, I used the laptop as my main computer hooked to my old-ass CRT monitor for about 90 days. Eventually I wanted to play a game that my integrated card couldn't handle. As nice as my laptop was (and actually still kind of is) spending $500 on an Emachines, and then another $300 on ram and a graphics card was the best move until I learned how to build systems myself.
I believe "pretty soon" is a great exaggeration. It may eventually happen but a 4% decrease doesn't at all mean its happening soon. If anything it's still a long ways off... if it even happens at all...
I'm assuming that notebooks include the netbook market? I'm thinking it's mostly market driven too. In the middle of a bad economy a $300 computer+monitor combo looks really good.
@Mike: That's not really relevant. Consider that without a recession, we might have had a scenario in which laptop sales increased by 30% and desktop sales increased by 10% (just making up numbers). This year's decrease is thus not indicative of a decline in the desktop market. It only serves as a measure of relative growth between laptops and desktops.
You could argue that desktops will be extinct in the long run as computers become very fast and cheap. However, last year's sales data is not sufficient to conclude that this process has begun.
@Mike: And laptops are mainly a consumer item. However some of the biggest hit by the recession are business, combined with not wanting to upgrade to Vista with Win7 around the corner and the fact the business sector is a very large purchaser of desktops it more than likely shows business currently don't want to buy new stuff if they don't need to. So the lack of Busnies sales could make a major chunk of that 5%.
Also Desktops are the home of pro, power and gamer users. Who are generally skilled enough to built there own at a cheaper price. and the self-built desktops won't show up in sales data.
07/15/09
For one thing, does 'notebook' include 'netbook'? That's a huge growth area and is targetted at people who want the most bang for the buck - just the thing people want in a recession.
Take out the netbook component and see if notebooks do so well.
07/14/09
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Actually, I kinda like that idea for a home office. A laptop or three with a centralized backup / storage / etc area. Hmm...
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I don't know if now is a good time to draw judgements seeing as how we're in the middle of a huge recession.
07/14/09
07/14/09
You could argue that desktops will be extinct in the long run as computers become very fast and cheap. However, last year's sales data is not sufficient to conclude that this process has begun.
07/14/09
07/14/09
Also Desktops are the home of pro, power and gamer users. Who are generally skilled enough to built there own at a cheaper price. and the self-built desktops won't show up in sales data.
07/14/09