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Laptops Outsell Desktops in Retail Stores

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the paying-twice-as-more-for-half-as-fast dept.

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. "

3 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Homebuilts - by jpsst34 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    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 /. story.

    --
    How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
  2. Common Complaint by vasqzr · · Score: 5, Interesting


    (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!

  3. Possible reasons by tmark · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.