The Desktop -- Time to Start Saying Goodbye?

Lucas123 writes "Robert Scheier at Computerworld writes that while worldwide PC shipments are expected to grow 12.2% this year, portable PC volumes are expected to grow 28% and will make up more than half of all PC shipments in the U.S. this quarter. Notebooks will dominate the worldwide PC marketplace by 2010. 'One researcher predicts it will be five to seven years before only the "die-hard" desktop users are left.'"

Comments

Re:You can have my desktop

[AKAImBatman]

At this point, it is still hard to do much to upgrade a laptop, which you can easily do with a desktop.

Thankfully, upgradability doesn't matter much these days. Your average home, business, and even most power users are content to leave the hardware that the machine came with. Extra devices are more often handled with USB ports than slotting in a new PCI or PCMCIA card.

That being said, desktops aren't going to die. There are still people who need the performance and form-factor, particularly workstation users. However, that doesn't mean that most of the market isn't moving toward laptops. For the vast majority of users, I fully expect that laptops (inconveniences and all) will continue to replace desktops as user's primary home and work machine.