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- Portability/visibility: Laptops are continually getting
lighter while screen sizes are getting bigger. Most new laptops come with 17
inch screens and weigh less than 7 pounds. Those with 15 inch monitors generally
weigh less than 5 and in some instances less than 3 pounds.
- Professional market evolution: Past laptop growth in the
professional sector was fueled by travelers (sales, tradeshow, meetings…). In
the last decade working from home has steadily developed with many companies
allowing their employees to work at home anywhere from one day a week to full
time. These are often perceived as cost savers, productivity booster and
flexibility factors for both the employees and employers. More and more online
applications are designed so that you can work remotely with the same
tools available in the office. Such online applications include:
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Audio/Visual conferencing
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Placing calls
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Document sharing and storing
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Scheduling
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Webmail
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Network access and sharing
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Software accessability. The software i.e. Microsoft Office is stored on a server, you
can use it on your laptop (via a small application installed on your laptop)
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Messengers…
Events such as the slowdown of the economy and the
explosion of gas prices will continue to accentuate that trend.
- Educational market evolution: More and more educational
institutions are requiring their students to have laptops; it started in the
universities and his working its way to the younger students. In addition, once
students get used to laptops, rarely do they buy a desktop later on for
themselves.
- Personal market evolution: decreased price, increased power and improved portability with the explosion of hotspots have been essential to the switch from desktop to laptop. Furthermore, the multiplication of applications for personal use have affected our lifestyle and are starting to make the laptop as indispensable as cell phones are today. Such applications include:
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DVD player,
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Video On Demand,
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Picture display,
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Music player,
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Internet radio
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Games,
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GPS,
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Communication (Skype, messenger…),
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Social gathering (facebook, myspace…).
The desktop are evolving more and more in a different
market demand such as Media PC environment (TV tuner, DVR, radio, music) for the
home or used as back up device for your laptop. Chances are that when it is time
to replace your DVD player you will may buy a PC. This will enable you to download TV shows on your computer and watch them on your TV.
What’s next for laptops?
- They will continue to improve in the traditional “way”
catching up with the desktops in term of power, capacity and price, replacing
desktop for most needs.
- Another aspect is the extra portability evolution already
underway with mini laptops, palmtops, tablet PCs and touch screen laptops.
Combining extreme portability, WiFi and tactical screens, these mini laptops
will replace gradually paper and pads, order sheets, notebooks and others... As
you write or type or write any information on your mini laptop (orders, notes,
drawings, questionnaires….) you have the ability to immediately save, sync or
communicate the results.
Conclusion
As the sales demonstrate, the PC industry as a whole is
growing steadily worldwide. Laptops are now undeniably taking the lion
share of that growth. The range of laptops is large enough for anyone’s demand
from desktop replacements to ultraportables. They allow us to perform personal tasks (accounting, gaming, reservations…) to educational (research, reading, interactive, video, audio) and professional (documents, programming, calls, conferences, scheduling, emails) from anywhere, at anytime, also allowing us to mix all these activities.
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