Thomas Lenar wrote:
> A laptop simply costs more than
> a comprably eqipped desktop, and the top of the line laptop isn't as
> powerful as a desktop in the same price range.
This happens not to be true on either count, as I can attest from my own
experience. The really expensive laptops are all from the biggest
producers, such as Dell or IBM. However, you can get a really fantastic
laptop with lots of processing power from a smaller company for a lot less
money. You can get a very high-end desktop replacement machine for under
$3,000 now (with computing power equal or superior to a comparably priced
desktop setup). Also, most laptops today are built modularly, making the
upgrade path a lot less painful.
As a design issue, I've noticed the convergence of the desktop and the
laptop as time goes on. Especially when considering that office rents in
urban markets run around $20.00 per square foot or more, it just doesn't
make sense to commit all sorts of space to a desk hog like a full-tower PC
with a 17 or 21 inch monitor. I just got finished designing the new layout
for our office to be completed next year, and the amount of space devoted to
desktop computers is absolutely appalling. Eliminating my desktop machine
in favor of a high-powered laptop suddenly gave me twice as much desk space.
Hence, we now see the appearance of desktop LCD monitors (a good quality LCD
panel beats a CRT monitor for screen sharpness and color fidelity anyway)
and all sorts of special furniture designed to contain electronic clutter.
Further, as we become more and more dependent on computers for our work, the
flexibility to take them with us when we go about our business is becoming a
necessity, not a luxury. It is interesting to me that the vast majority of
laptop purchasers I've known have junked their desktop machines very shortly
after buying the laptop ostensively as a "second" machine (that was the
pattern with me too). We all discovered that we just stopped using the
desktop machines when we had the laptop available.
And that evolutionary pressure in computing is continuing down the scale as
well. New subnotebooks and palm-size computers are starting to get powerful
and useful enough to seriously function as stand-alone devices for
accomplishing work. Actually, this laptop-desktop thing reminds me of the
arguments between the mainframe and PC people back in the late 70s and early
80s.
my $0.02 (that makes $0.04, now)
~g
J. Gregory Wharton
Architect
Seattle, WA, USA
> A laptop simply costs more than
> a comprably eqipped desktop, and the top of the line laptop isn't as
> powerful as a desktop in the same price range.
This happens not to be true on either count, as I can attest from my own
experience. The really expensive laptops are all from the biggest
producers, such as Dell or IBM. However, you can get a really fantastic
laptop with lots of processing power from a smaller company for a lot less
money. You can get a very high-end desktop replacement machine for under
$3,000 now (with computing power equal or superior to a comparably priced
desktop setup). Also, most laptops today are built modularly, making the
upgrade path a lot less painful.
As a design issue, I've noticed the convergence of the desktop and the
laptop as time goes on. Especially when considering that office rents in
urban markets run around $20.00 per square foot or more, it just doesn't
make sense to commit all sorts of space to a desk hog like a full-tower PC
with a 17 or 21 inch monitor. I just got finished designing the new layout
for our office to be completed next year, and the amount of space devoted to
desktop computers is absolutely appalling. Eliminating my desktop machine
in favor of a high-powered laptop suddenly gave me twice as much desk space.
Hence, we now see the appearance of desktop LCD monitors (a good quality LCD
panel beats a CRT monitor for screen sharpness and color fidelity anyway)
and all sorts of special furniture designed to contain electronic clutter.
Further, as we become more and more dependent on computers for our work, the
flexibility to take them with us when we go about our business is becoming a
necessity, not a luxury. It is interesting to me that the vast majority of
laptop purchasers I've known have junked their desktop machines very shortly
after buying the laptop ostensively as a "second" machine (that was the
pattern with me too). We all discovered that we just stopped using the
desktop machines when we had the laptop available.
And that evolutionary pressure in computing is continuing down the scale as
well. New subnotebooks and palm-size computers are starting to get powerful
and useful enough to seriously function as stand-alone devices for
accomplishing work. Actually, this laptop-desktop thing reminds me of the
arguments between the mainframe and PC people back in the late 70s and early
80s.
my $0.02 (that makes $0.04, now)
~g
J. Gregory Wharton
Architect
Seattle, WA, USA