Laptops Overtaking Desktops

The laptop is gaining and surpassing the desktop in sales. For years, the laptop was a niche market that has now grown to become the main form factor of computer for most people. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Laptops become computer of choice for individual Americans -- chicagotribune.com

Analysts say U.S. laptop sales rose 21 percent in 2007, to 31.6 million, while desktop sales slumped nearly 4 percent, to 35 million. Those figures include purchases by businesses.

Overall, laptops are still underdogs, but they're expected to account for the majority of U.S. computer sales in 2008 and of worldwide sales in 2009.

By 2011, research firm IDC expects portable computers to constitute 66 percent of all corporate PCs sold, up from 40 percent in 2006, and 71 percent of all consumer PCs sold, up from 44 percent.
. . .

In the last four years, though, the price difference has narrowed. Already, some bare-bones laptops can be found for less than $500.

With their newfound popularity, laptops are doing for computing what cell phones did for talking: bringing the activities into public places. With that, new social norms and rules of etiquette are emerging.

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