Silly me. When I purchased my KayPro II back in 1982, I thought that 64K of memory and two floppy-floppy drives was the epitome of portable computing...it DID fit beneath an airline seat (just as long as I didn't have to put my feet in the same space). Apparently, portable computers, laptops are catching up with desktop computers in overall acceptance and diffusion.
"Increasingly, notebooks are the computers of choice. Laptop sales in the back-to-school sales period, the industry's second-busiest season after holidays, hit a record volume during the first week of August, according to Current Analysis Inc. Notebooks captured more than half of all computer sales every month since May, hitting a high of 57 percent market share in August.Two factors have driven the surge in the popularity of notebooks: Laptops have become cheaper, dipping to below $500 with some mail-in rebate promotions last month, and the surge in wireless technology allows laptops to finally deliver on their long- promised mobility."
A recent CNET article reports:
"Thanks to sales seen of late, the portable PC category is well on its way to eclipsing the 30 percent mark and should reach 35 percent of PC sales in the U.S. market by 2007, IDC said."
Wireless, portable, computing for less than one third the price that I paid for that old KayPro...Wow! In reality, the same useful power and features should (and probably do) cost less than $100.00 today...but thanks to creeping featurism, we are being manipulated into believing that more features, faster processors, ad nauseum...somehow make the computer more useful. Horsefeathers! If/when the creeping feature monster is reeled-in, information appliances of the near future will make the laptop vs. desktop discussion look like one of the silliest debates of the 21st century.