WSJ: The Laptop as Desktop
Until now, conventional wisdom has held that a desktop personal computer is essential at home for heavy-duty tasks such as editing video. But with a slew of more powerful notebook computers hitting the market, consumers could ditch their desktop and make a laptop their primary home computer.
PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co., Sony Corp. and Acer Inc. this month unveiled laptops that rival desktops at performing multimedia tasks. Many of these notebook computers use a line of Intel Corp. chips -- called Centrino Duo -- that offer greater processing power and faster wireless networking.
It's not too terribly surprising that users want all their wicked processing power and bulk storage in a tidy, portable package. I'm currently being seduced by the idea of writing from my kitchen table, via wireless, rather than at my desk.
This is also the same manifestation of the portability zeitgeist driving the evolution of "smart phones," which is still a dumb name and needs a better one. The power and capabilities of handheld wireless devices is progressing to the point where it is becoming inappropriate to call them phones anymore. "Personal Computer" would be more accurate, but that's already taken.
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Until now, conventional wisdom has held that a desktop personal computer is essential at home for heavy-duty tasks such as editing video. But with a slew of more powerful notebook computers hitting the market, consumers could ditch their desktop and make a laptop their primary home computer.
PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co., Sony Corp. and Acer Inc. this month unveiled laptops that rival desktops at performing multimedia tasks. Many of these notebook computers use a line of Intel Corp. chips -- called Centrino Duo -- that offer greater processing power and faster wireless networking.
It's not too terribly surprising that users want all their wicked processing power and bulk storage in a tidy, portable package. I'm currently being seduced by the idea of writing from my kitchen table, via wireless, rather than at my desk.
This is also the same manifestation of the portability zeitgeist driving the evolution of "smart phones," which is still a dumb name and needs a better one. The power and capabilities of handheld wireless devices is progressing to the point where it is becoming inappropriate to call them phones anymore. "Personal Computer" would be more accurate, but that's already taken.
1 comment:
Portable Media Players (PMP)or devices is typically the term being used for handheld multimedia gadgets that can do several things, like playback photos, video, and even track your location via GPS. But you are right: these descriptions typically don't include cell phones. Perhaps as the secondary (and arguably primary) functions of a lot of these multimedia phones/PDAs improves, perhaps they will be included under the general "PMP" moniker. Or, to your dismay, we'll just continue to call them smartphones (or as I've joked in the past, "super" smart phones!)
Love the blog, Lee. Just got around to browsing through as I sit in an airport this morning!
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