It's the death of desktops.
As desktops get replaced by laptops or the occasional iMac-style all-in-one, it's desktops that are on the way out.
Our thanks as always to Reg readers, some 644 IT pros, who took time out to complete our recent survey into mobile computing in business. Our research partner Freeform Dynamics, has parlayed the data into a lovely whitepaper called Mobile Computing Checkpoint: The present and future of flexible working, published for your …
For the past four years (at least), our staff have had the option of desktop or laptop. We're still over 90% desktops, and the proportion of laptops doesn't seem to be rising any more.
All laptops are a compromise of various sorts between power consumption, processing power, heat, size, weight, battery life, ergonomics etc. For a large proportion of users, the benefits of decent size screen, keyboard and mouse outweigh the single benefit of portability that you get with a laptop.
i think if staff are given the choice of a laptop without all the toys, like large screen, keyboard, mouse and stand of course they will choose a desktop.
Our company provides all the extras to prevent health and safety issues and greater than 90% of staff choose laptops.
Of course we can and do work from home according to our schedule and our personal needs.
A toy tablet would not cut the mustard for so many reasons.
But it doesn't allow me to virus scan external hard disks, download essential programs to a USB stick, or run a full range of techie software. It can't burn isos to CDs. Nor can it run without iTunes on a main computer.
So I still occasionally use my UMPC laptop. For the forseeable future!