Are Desktop Computers Dying?
BarCamps, Startup Weekends, Coworking, Panera, Starbucks, Ritual Roasters - all places typically flooded with Wi-Fi and laptop-toting patrons. Over the last five years, the increasing prevalence of wireless networking and the advancement of smaller and more mobile laptops have led to a stunning laptop adoption rate.
Recently I have been thinking about this a lot. I believe a tipping point has been reached in the last year or two. With the exception of certain use cases such as video production, servers and gamers/hardcore PC enthusiasts, laptops are undoubtedly taking over. For example, the MacBook is Apple’s top selling computer, all incoming Georgia Tech freshman are required to have a laptop computers and so on.
Yes, desktops are dying.
Recent advances in processor technology and mobile chipsets are to thank for this. Intel’s breakthrough (at the time, and even still) Centrino initiative that bundles a power efficient processor, motherboard chipset and wireless network adapter, further marks laptops as capable mobile machines. And now with dual-core and soon quad-core processors in addition to solid-state disks making their way into laptops, the performance gap between desktops and laptops isn’t so gargantuan anymore. I haven’t found much that I can’t do on my MacBook Pro with the obvious exception of playing Crysis with the settings maxed out.. for that would need a triple SLI beast.
No, they’re still alive and kicking.
Laptops are typically more expensive than their desktop counterparts and it seems this will always be the case. The question is how much consumers value mobility. From my own experiences, the answer to this is that consumers value mobility considerably but then again my point of view is biased as I generally hang around with the tech-savvy, Apple-loving crowd.
Speed is easier to attain with desktops. There’s more space for larger hard drive platters, faster Blu-ray burners, full-size DDR3 DIMMs, multi-processor configurations, et cetera. Also, bleeding-edge technology is almost always only available for desktops at first. Desktops are sort of the test-bed for the latest tech before engineers can find a way to make them consume less power and produce less heat all while being half the size, and thus be fit for mobile usage.
Verdict
Where do you stand on this? I am a strong advocate for mobility and laptops, as I write this at home sitting somewhat half on the couch, half on the floor. I appreciate being able to have my primary computer anywhere I go and should I need the desktop feel, just attach a keyboard, mouse and larger external display. I can take my laptop to classes or compute anywhere for that matter, while retaining 90-95% of a typical modern desktop computer’s performance. Of course, my PC enthusiast roommate will disagree with me with his single-stage (for now) vapor phase change cooled quad-core 4.4GHz desktop computer.
I use a laptop heaps, but only as a remote desktop to my desktop PC at home, I like working everywhere in the house but I don’t like using the laptop when I have real work to do, and installing software on more then one PC is a pain, and then there is the hassle of keeping copies of the files I am working on in sync between the 2 computers. Only thing that isnt really good is trying to watch youtube thru remote desktop, but I try to minimise my time wasted looking at videoblogs etc since they are a very poor return of information for the time spent on them, and I cant watch and talk on the phone at the same time.
laptops are always slow, its the harddrive, its them heating up and throttling the cpu back when you do a render, its the crap screen on them, its the cramped keyboard with stupid placement of keys that varies between them all, Its just not as plesent as sitting at a nice big good screen, with a comfy keyboard you can move around. The lifting things for laptops and external keyboards are just too much crap when a desktop does it all for you. Plus I can upgrade the desktop within reason, authough it is time to replace most of it so I can finally go to ddr-2 since its so much cheaper then ddr. I was going to wait till going to more then 4 gigs was viable but it cant wait for this year sadly.
As a soon-to-be college student, I wouldn’t even consider not having a laptop. I need the ability to tote my work around campus. With the ability to plug in an extra monitor (which can be large), it basically serves as a desktop. A desktop computer, to me, would only serve as a second computer.
My mind may change after I get out of college, but until then I need a laptop.
I wouldn’t say that desktops are dying, just that they are increasingly sharing the spotlight with their more portable little brothers. I am typing this on my laptop, which is more handy while I’m channel surfing, but later tonight I’ll be in my game room playing Crysis on the “real” PC.
At my office, laptop usage has grown slowly, and IT predicts that we’ll end up stabilizing at around 25% of us using laptops rather than desktops. (We’re a software development group, though, so I admit that portability is not as important for us as processing power).
Another factor which is speeding up the death of the desktop is cloud computing. With more and more tasks being done through web services, there’s not a huge need for powerful hardware on the client side. Once WiMax goes mainstream, I think the combination of it with cloud computing will be too convenient to be ignored.
The corporate world is not even ready to switch to laptop, for 2 main reasons : cost and security.
First, a laptop is “all in one”… with desktop, you can still change the screen, the hard drive… pretty easily, without changing the whole computer
Security, everything part of the Information Systems that goes out of a company’s premises is a terrible threat data leaks… the more they can keep stuff inside, they will : what’s the point of a laptop if you just cannot move it!
However, for individuals, yes, desktop are dead!
Both are a requirement in the way I work. Desktop takes about 90% of my time, but since I’m going to be upgrading my laptop relatively soon, and heading back to classes in Jan, I’m sure that percentage will change.
Julien, Corporate America may not be ready to go all-in on laptops, but the percentage of laptop users to desktop users is growing exponentially. I worked for a Fortune 500 company where everyone in my department had a laptop and roughly 75% of the IT department (my previous position with the company) had a laptop as well.
It actually became part of the DR strategy…one employee from each department worked from home 1 day a week incase an unthinkable incident occurred. Then there would be subject matter experts available to get the Disaster Recovery site up and running.
In my latest position with an SEO/SEM firm, over 97% of the people within the company had laptops while only 20% of us traveled.
While I agree, that security and cost are risks, companies are switching over. Ready or not here they come.
I type this as I’m moments away from unplugging my MacBook Pro and transitioning from my office to the living room to enjoy some Friday night DVR catch-up!!
Desktops are certainly the way to go if you want the power and storage capacity, but when I unplug my external hard drives and work from my deck in the summertime or when I’m on an airplane writing my next web app I forget all about it.
Do I like an always up to date set of files? Yes. Do I want to take a 13in ultraportable with me on a flight? Yes. Do I want it to drive a 30in monitor and link to my bank of external drives at my desk? Yes.
I would like to be able to take the core of my system anywhere but have enough power to replace a desktop when needed. The 17inch laptops are too big for everyday carrying and the small portables are too low resolution for all day use. We’re not quite there yet.
I can’t remember the last time I used a desktop. Almost everyone at my firm is on a laptop. However, lots of home users still have them.
Ever since buying my Macbook I won’t ever go back to not having a laptop as it’s become a crucial part of my life. On the same note, I won’t ever drop my desktop as there are many things I can do on my desktop that I can’t do on my laptop. Want RAID 0/1/5 on a laptop? Tough luck. Want any sort of GPU processing power without a 10 pound brick on your lap? Dream on. Want to be able to strap a cascade to your processor and set world records? Hope you have an amazing warranty and top-notch soldering skills. Non-mobile computers will always exist in the form of servers, high-end workstations, and high-end gaming platforms. For everything else mini-computers (Mac Mini and SFF computers) and laptops are more than sufficient. My parent’s don’t need a 4+GHz quadcore chip with a RAID array to surf the Internet and answer email, but I sure as hell do. Desktops won’t die, but they’ll operate in a diminished state compared to the 90’s which is fine by me. No sense running a full powered desktop for every paper pusher in America, waste of electricity and components.
I agree with you that we’ve recently passed a tipping point in favor of laptops. They’ve gotten thin, light, and powerful enough to serve as someone’s only computer. I recently purchased my first laptop and my first Apple, a MacBook Pro, and I couldn’t be happier. The ability to not be locked down to my desk anymore is HUGE.
Desktops still have their place though for gaming, and it can be handy to have a desktop running for apps you want to run 24/7, FTP servers, torrents, etc.
Stephen, there are a few subnotebooks with high resolution displays. For example, my ThinkPad X61 Tablet PC has an 12.1″ 1400×1050 panel. I also have a ThinkPad T60p with a 15″ 1600×1200 panel, but that of course is a bigger machine. Both are outstanding displays.
Paul, what is a desktop computer anyway? :-) I used to know what that meant, but the last time I used one was almost ten years ago, when I got my first ThinkPad 600. The moment I started using it I knew I’d never go back to a desktop machine.
Another nice thing about ThinkPads is that they have good keyboards, and for the most part IBM/Lenovo has never tinkered with the keyboard layout. I’ve gone through five or six generations of ThinkPads and they have all had the same keyboard layout. (The only minor exception being that the latest models added the Windows keys.)
And… The TrackPoint! For a touch typist, no other pointing device comes close to the usability of the TrackPoint. You can point and click without moving either hand from the home row.
There’s nothing like a Thinkpad!
Hey Paul,
Although I use my Mac mostly now….I still use my HP Pavillion 753n for streaming video on Ustream.tv and it has Adobe Audition.
Once I get fully mobile, then I think I know how everyone feels :)
Paul, I remember seeing you mod a bunch of Shuttles in the past… What’s your take on them now Apple fanboy? ;)
I just finished my Shuttle SG33G5 build w/ a 8800GT so I can clock some hours into Call of Duty 4 and Crysis. The fact that I can pick up my whole computer in one hand makes me wonder why I didn’t jump on the SFF bandwagon sooner. A remotely similar gaming laptop would easily cost 3x the amount I spent.
While I can’t bear to type for long on my Dell M1210, the desktop paired with my Logitech Wave keyboard, I can literally go on for days. Perhaps the ultraportable vs. full desktop comparison isn’t valid. I do love the feel of a Macbook Pro’s keyboard and palmrest though.
Desktops always felt faster to me - perhaps I haven’t been investing enough into my laptop components. :)
Anyways, I’ll be taking my Shuttle box back to Tech, no way I can bring a Mid/Full ATX tower as “carry-on” for the plane ride.
I certainly agree with you that laptops are catching on, however if you took my laptop away, I wouldn’t miss it. Well, it’s a Dell, but that’s a whole ‘nother arguement.
Your friend should strap a phase-change assembly to his backpack and try to push a Merom XE to the limit while in lecture… just a thought.
Anyways, to end a long reply… Yes I’m typing this on my laptop, but that’s because I’m throwing Vista Business x64 on my Shuttle.
Yes. Microsoft.
Horses for courses. I spend up to 10 hours a day in front of my Mac Pro and couldn’t do that with a Notebook. I once went ‘Notebook only’ for a couple of years as I was travelling a lot and at the end of it I had really bad posture and a wrecked shoulder - both of which still trouble me today.
The desktyop is way better for your health I reckon, yet the Notebook gives you miore flexibility.
While the number of laptops increase, the prices are on the decrease. Sure a lot of people only have a laptop, but I also think a lot of people can afford both - and do so too. Since finishing my education this summer, I don’t need a laptop any more, and for home use, I don’t think anything could beat my current Mac Pro - at least for me.
I think the two main reasons for the increase in market share for laptops are fashion and desktop real-estate. I’ve been asked by probably half-a-dozen civilians for recommendations for computers to buy to replacing their aging desktops, and they’ve all said they wanted to buy laptops, even though they aren’t going to be taking them anywhere.
But a laptop for a desk doesn’t make sense, I tell them. Yes, but they look better and they take up less space. The fact that they’re not (easily) upgradeable, and generally underpowered is irrelevant to them.
What should be important to them is that they will literally do themselves an injury using one. As someone who properly knackered their lower back through using a laptop in a bad position (and it’s difficult not to), and speaking to specialists in the field following that, I think there’ll be a big backlash in the next 12-24 months, as the posture-related problems occur, and that will go a long way to redressing the balance as far as the mass-market goes.
I’ve been a PC owner for 10 years now, and have owned a laptop for the past 2.5 years. I’m now solely portable, and awaiting a Macbook arriving any day now.
Although I can’t see me buying a desktop any time soon, but I think Chris touched on an important point — posture. With a laptop usage, posture tends to be terrible. A way to counter it is to always work at a desk, but it kind of defeats the purpose.
I believe Desktop Computers will decrease to specific usage, for example, gaming, in labs for research. A laptop computer is much more handy then a big computer for someone who uses it for writing and using the internet. Here at my place we’ve only one PC, that works as a media computer + games. And some notebooks :)
Unless I got into hardcore HD video editing (maybe when I start having kids), I couldn’t see myself getting a desktop ever again. Portability is too important. My next computer is probably going to be an ultramobile PC (Apple, you listening?)
I use my macbook pro for everything. It easily handles my HD video and photo editing. Most games are also handled nicely by its 256mb GDDR3 graphics card. I still have a high end gaming desktop at home, but find myself using it very little. I also like the fact that my macbook pro uses energy efficient features like LED screen technology. As micro chip technology advances and becomes more affordable, I do think that traditional desktop computers will phase out.
I have both an iBook and an iMac so I am living in the best of both worlds. I love my iMac because of the screen size, but I definitely need the iBook for mobile tasks such as going to class, etc.
I’m posting this to mention that my Dad, whose work is video editing (with FCP) uses the Mac Book Pro (17 inch) However, he uses it like a desktop, his reason for buying it is so he can easily take all that grunt with him when we move.
However, the grunt work of burning DVD’s is done on tower machines- they handle it better.
Laptops are nice to sit where ever you want- instead of being stuck in the study with the desktop. Socializing, anyone?
I think there will always be a need for the additional horse power you get from a desktop. While I agree there will be more and more “home” users using laptops as replacements, there will always be the power user “professionals” that need bandwidth to burn.
I’m a mobile fan like the rest. SO much so that I slapped on a set of wheels on my pc for more mobility. I fix computers, and have to travel to the site I’m working at. With the wheels I can roll it around to the next house. I can test parts by swaping them into my PC an vice versa. I like the option of eventually upgrading. My Intel slot 775 will fit the newest dual core quad core. I’ll wait for the price to drop. Easy access iside my computer.
Everyone wants a laptop. Consumers who know the basics want a laptop. Tec guys and gamers prefer the versatility of the PC. The majority of those guys are fat and don’t move around much anyway. lol
[...] I read through my roommate’s article, Are Desktop Computers Dying?, and thought a bit about it. Technology evangelists have been warning of the death of the desktop [...]
I just use both! I have a macpro with 30″ dell monitor and my job gave me a black macbook which is pretty quick. I’ll be at this company for a while so I plan on having both options for a good amount time. I definately feel the need for both pending your lifestyle. I’m on the go often and hate being without my computer.
If you can afford it…get both. If you can’t there is always Visa, MasterCard and Amex… :)
I stopped using a desktop earlier this year when I bought my first Mac (Macbook). I love the ability to take my files anywhere and work away from home without having to do any type of file syncing between a desktop and laptop. I use my laptop a lot at home with an external monitor and keyboard/mouse so it’s not that different from a desktop when it’s “docked” like this. But the advantage is huge when I want to work elsewhere or when traveling for work. No more desktops for me.
I have a macbook pro that I use around school to take notes / check e-mail and stuff but for the most part, I get 90% of my work done on my desktop at home. I don’t think desktops will die for quite a while now.
The huge numbers of desktops that are required in enterprise, I don’t think they will ever truly die. Businesses are too worried that staff will wander off with the laptops if you can’t keep them locked to the desk. Plus in my industry, it’s just not practical to sit with a laptop on you for 12 hour shifts.
For home, I probably won’t get another iMac and go for a Macbook with externals plugged in like you.
This could hasten the end of the desktop. http://gizmodo.com/339918/apple-docking-patent-works-perfectly-with-ultra+slim-macbook
I bought my MacBook 1.5 years ago and as a student it’s been absolutely invaluable for sure. I can’t see myself ever being without a laptop again. That said, I still use my old PC for gaming and I’d like to think I’ll always have one of them too, if only for “hobbyist” reasons. Actually, the PC I said I have just broke down last night, (mobo kicked the bucket I think) and, for the next PC I own, I’m hoping to build it myself. I still like the idea of having a somewhat-powerful system for gaming or just sitting down and working at.
Jack…
Ill admit it. i have been to your blog SIX times since your last post looking for a new post ….
desktop only needed for heavy video files, photoshop, design work and more. Laptop for small easier use.