Is the age of the desktop PC over?

It appeared in the 1970s, and was called the micro-computer, and was popularized in its current form in 1982 when IBM released its PC (personal computer).
Also appearing the eighties, were the first portable computers, which were chunky and too expensive.

Portables became notebooks (big ones), then laptops, then ‘netbooks’ and ‘palmtops’.
Today, it’s fair to say that these portables, are killing desktops. Apparently, a smaller percentage of personal users are buying them. Apart from corporations and specific user groups, the desktop is now, officially, dying as a mainstream computing option.

Laptops crossed a milestone in the third quarter of 2008, passing desktop PC sales in the US for the first time, according to research group iSuppli. And laptop makers are eagerly awaiting this era.

Here’s a frightening piece of information that demonstrates the trend continued in quarter four of 2008; not a single desktop model showed up on Amazon.com’s top ten selling PC and hardware list during Christmas, while seven laptop models were in the list.

What’s driving this? Apart from lower laptop prices and higher specifications? The answer is the Internet. The ability to surf the Internet wirelessly at public places and the ability to take your office out with you when you travel. And the variety available suits almost every user group. You can get notebooks at every screen inch size from 5-inch to 20-inch.

Another interesting piece of information is that 80 percent of the world’s laptop PCs and made in Taiwan. So they will be happy for sure!

So, which groups of users may keep buying desktops? Hardcore computer gamers, because desktop systems offer greater processing power for memory-intensive applications.

On the other side of the user spectrum there will be ‘hardware geeks’, who covet processing power, experimentation and ‘modding’.

In our part of the world, or in any poor or under developed country, desktops will retain their appeal as they remain, generally, cheaper than laptops. Especially when you consider the fact that anyone can ‘slap’ a motherboard, a hard drive and a few chips together to get a desktop. However, even that is all set to change though with ‘netbooks’ coming in at under $300 complete with screen!

So, is the age of the desktop PC over? Well, the sun is starting to set on it, but I personally think that desktops have so much more staying power than industry commentators and journalists would have you believe.

Call me old-fashioned, but I plan to hang onto my office desktop PC for a couple of years to come!

zanasser@gmail.com