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Laptops Outsell Desktops in Retail Stores
TechnoPope writes "According to this article on MSNBC.Com, laptop computers accounted for 54 percent of of 500 Million in retail computer sales last year. Also mentioned was that LCD's outsold CRT's in retail as well. "
Why anyone would ever bother with a CRT again is beyond me, it's just insanity. For a slight increase in price you have a massive boost in clarity, stunning resolutions, and brilliant bright displays. Lower energy use, less desk space and less room heating in the middle of summer than a CRT.
Amazing how people will hold onto the old & known, despite better options being available
People want mobility with out sacrificing performace. Todays laptops seem to do that nicely, especially Apple's power books. I never liked palm pilots but laptops are quite nice on the average. I just wish heat wasn't such an issue. I used to have an Acer laptop 5-6 year ago and it left burns on my lap after an hour or so of use.
I wonder how many PC users build their own - as in what percentage of desktop's are homebuilt, since these don't figure into the "retail PC sales" numbers.
/. story.
In our little geek world, I'm sure the percentage of homebuilts is very high. But in the "real world," I wonder where that percentage falls to. I wonder if homebuilts account for enough to push laptop sales back under 50%, thus negating this
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
I never thought notebooks were that usefull until I got one myself. Its almost as powerfull as my desktop,but portable and more comfortable to use. Which makes me wonder if a stupider labtop that simply connects to a more powerful desktop would be even more usefull. I guess they still need to workout the bandwidth and display issues.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
I am sure that there are more *new* desktops in use than there are laptops. You have to take into the account the amount of people that build their own desktops as compared to those who build laptops (not too many people that I know of build their own laptops). I would say give it a few more years and then I can see laptops truly outselling desktops.
"The two most abundant elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." -Harlan Ellison
Actually, it seems even more skewed than that, if I interpret it correctly:
"LAPTOPS ACCOUNTED for more than 54 percent of the nearly $500 million in retail computer sales in May, the Port Washington, N.Y., company said Tuesday. That compares with January 2000, when laptops represented less than 25 percent of sales volume, NPD said"
They are comparing today's sales revenues (i.e. dollar figures, with laptops way more expensive) to yesterday's sales volumes (i.e. numbers shipped, for which desktops would be heavily favoured)
Look like some fine marketing work!
What, are you kidding me? If you read the article instead of trying to hit first post, it says people are buying laptops for the portability -- imagine that! I thought we all wanted smaller & easier to use.
Not discussed in the article, CRTs and desktops use much more energy. Laptops can be used when the power is out - what a concept, not just a UPS where you can gracefully shut down when the power goes out.
The desktop is king only where unit cost is important. Oh, and gaming.
I cannot imagine computing without them. I carry mine around almost everywhere I can. Sitting back in a cafe typing out code before a friend shows up or playing a game. I use mine everywhere.
It is also nice to be able to sit the thing in my lap and sit in the same room as my wife and hold down a conversation instead of being relegating to one room while I aimlessly surf.
Any others? Who loves having a laptop?
ACK
With wireless networking beeing around - this was becoming totally obvious. if you would ask me to expend 2k euro on a small and superflat laptop just for surfing, mail and irc.. i would say yessss!
(Assuming you're using Windows)
Turn on Large Fonts.
I hear this all the time with my laptop users at work.
You can't get any work done in 800x600 anyway. Hell, for much other than Word, 1024x768 stinks too!
I would not be surprised if flat screen displays doesn't reverse the trend of laptop sales out pacing desktops. The main reason for buying a laptop is size. In most companies the cost of having people move CRTs around the office is more than price differential between lap tops and desktops. It costs about $20 more to ship a computer with a 17" CRT than a laptop.
Personally, I wish more PC manufacturers would get a clue and adopt some of the space saving features of laptops and produce smaller desktop models. In most cases, people don't need the environmentally questionable batteries in laptops, they just want something that isn't heavy and awkward.
You know a lot of very nerdy people if desktop buyers "routinely" build their own machines. I don't have numbers, but I'm sure the percent of people who build versus buy is miniscule. I know a lot of people with desktops, only of them was homemade. Most people aren't interested in the hassle for little reward.
--
RumorsDaily
Before anyone jumps to grand conclusions about what this means vis a vis desktops vs laptops:
I don't see anyone noting how laptops are inherently hard to upgrade. If your laptop is sluggish, you basically have two options: 1) add more RAM, and if that fails, 2) buy a new laptop. Whereas, with desktop PCs, you have several more options, like upgrading the CPU or buying a new graphics card. This means that the average desktop will have a longer upgradeable life than the average laptop.
A related factor is that the average desktop for under $1000 is way more powerful than the average $2000 laptop. So a desktop bought today is much less likely to be made obsolete by horsepower requirements within a given time frame than a laptop also bought today, if only because it has more horsepower right out of the box, even if that desktop costs a lot less.
And because of the inherent cost differential, people who can afford to buy laptops can afford to upgrade them faster.
Also, many people who buy laptops buy it for the chic factor, so they're going to upgrade (i.e. buy a new laptop) sooner than those people who buy the decidedly unchic desktop.
Laptops are undeniably at least partly about image, and people consume them every bit as conspicuously (and in the very same places !) as people consumed Filofaxes, cell phones, and PDAs before. And I've noticed many smirks or at least raised eyebrows when someone trundles in a 3-year old, heavy-as-hell-with-passive-matrix-screen laptop into a meeting. And many if not most of the laptop-advocates here are familiar with the satisfaction of hauling in the newest, coolest laptop, hearing the oohs-and-ahhs and having the neatest toy in the board room for the next month or so.
But seriously... I wonder what the statistics are of the amount of PC's bought in retail compared to on-line and how many specifically how many laptops vs. desktops are bought retail vs. on-line. Stastics show whatever the collector wants them to show. Here's some interesting points to think about... - How many of those laptops were purchased by people already owning desktops from previous years - People tend to want to purchase a laptop from a retail location because they can "feel" the product, whereas a desktop is pretty much just specs and can be purchased from the on-line store of any major brand. - Same is true for LCD panels where you want to check out the clerity and picture of a panel whereas CRT's tend to be more specs and commonplace for most purchasers. - Why would someone be buying JUST a display from a retail store? They are upgrading. Why upgrade? You want bigger, better or both. The rest of users are receiving their new monitors with their desktops they just purchased at the above on-line store. SUMMER: screw retail statistics or any selling portal for that matter. You want accurrate statistics? ...more accurately study the volume of PC's manufactured since demand generally drives supply for the following quarter and/or fiscal year. ;)
Eh? Your laptop is good for what, an hour? Hour-and-a-half max if you are actually doing anything? Big deal. You can do without a puter for at least that long during a power failure and not die. Also...next year NEC is planning to produce a DESKTOP system running on their power cell (same one as they will use in their laptops late this year) that will provide laptop-like time for a desktop. The only thing a laptop will have is portability. It can't hold a candle to a desktop for CPU and video power in the best case, of course.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
I can think of several reasons why I haven't bought a laptop, and probably won't for a long while.
Ergonomics: Laptop keyboards *suck*. Also, bring your own mouse to plugin, because laptop 'touch mice' are a joke too.
Sound: Laptop speakers just ain't gonna reproduce sound as well as seperate speakers. You could plugin headphones, of course, or speakers, but then you might as well just use a desktop PC as they're not easily portable.
Upgrades: What upgrades? You can't upgrade a laptop like you can a PC. Buy a laptop, and live with its specs. When you need a new part, it's time to buy a new laptop, reinstall your OS and/or configure it for use with totally new hardware.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
get a desknote -- desktop parts in a portable laptop package and external battery if you really really need to have one.
cheaper than a regular laptop too.
i ditched my desktop for a desknote which is upgradeable around a year ago and ive not looked back since.