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Notebook Sales Outpace Desktop Sales

Posted by Soulskill on from the year-of-laptop-on-the-desktop dept.

mikesd81 writes "Eweek reports that notebook sales have surpassed desktop sales for the first time in history. 'In the third quarter of 2008, notebook PC shipments rose almost 40 percent compared with the same period of 2007 to reach 38.6 million units. Conversely, desktop PC shipments declined by 1.3 percent for the same period to 38.5 million units. "Momentum has been building in the notebook market for some time, so it's not a complete surprise that shipments have surpassed those of desktops," said iSuppli principal analyst for computer platforms Matthew Wilkins. "However, this marks a major event in the PC market because it marks the start of the age of the notebook." ... The FBI's National Crime Information Center reported that the number of reported laptop thefts increased almost 48 percent over the last two years, to nearly 109,000 from 73,700.'"

6 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. That's good, but. . . by wsidegangstarr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now just to get some more standards. . .and user-replaceable parts.

    1. Re:That's good, but. . . by nevesis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're overlooking the case and all panels, the keyboard, the touchpad, the LCD, the optical drive, the battery, the AC/DC adapter, the AC/DC powerjack (mounted to motherboards), and so on and so forth.

      The sad truth is that the oligopoly of notebook OEMs aren't interested in losing their repair and replacement profit.

  2. Wrong Decision by nevesis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The sad part is that many of these people would be better off with desktops. Desktops have a much lower total cost of ownership. (Even for home users.)

    1. Re:Wrong Decision by rogermcdodger · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Notebooks enable a different computing experience that people are willing to pay the extra for. Not being tied to a single location is a big selling point even if the computer will never leave the home.

  3. Re:Steve Jobs Quote. by LordVader717 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Exactly. Apple charge a minimum of $600 for their pieces of junk.
    Seriously, is there anyone here who really believes Macs are something more than generic PC hardware which is allowed to play use their DRM'd OS? It may come in a shiny white case, but that really is just about it.

  4. Re:Girls and Gays by yanos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dude! I think you are greatly exaggerating the geek stereotype here. Specs like that are for some very intensive stuff, like a rendering machine or something. The fact that you conveniently forgot to tell us what you are doing with this machine makes me believe that *you* are the supposed geek that just like to brag about their computer penis size^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hspecs.

    I'm a long time gentoo user and even I don't see the need to upgrade to a quad core, despite having to compile stuff all the time. It could go faster, but right now I think it's fast enough and so not worth the money to upgrade the mobo+RAM+CPU. I even do a bit of video compression and run some virtual machines. You know what? I'm still on a *single* core cpu! OMG I'm so un-l33t or whatever...

    And 9TB of drive space? What are you storing anyway? I have quite few video and music and I'm still below 2TB, backups included.

    I think you just made those up just to prove a point, dude. Laptops are just fine, save for the small screen and even then you can always hook your laptop to another one when at home.

    And please stop using the term gay in a derogative way, it's just so very immature.