When will laptops become obsolete?

Togepi

When will laptops be no more? And what will replace them? Ultra books? Tablets? Something else?

Basically, are iPads or ultra books going to become the norm over the next few years?

Torqay

Let's see...



Seriously, just because manufacturers reinvent the "subnotebook" every few years (Ultrabooks being only the latest incarnation) they're not vastly different from laptops/notebooks.

Togepi

Well then when will iPads and tablets become more common than laptops? (And thanks for the crystal ball, it might come in handy.)

GreenWolfe

The latest craze seems to be that everything is getting a touch interface of some kind. Aren't Microsoft hoping that most laptops will have Kinect sensors and touchscreens?

Ultrabooks seem too costly for the mass market, and I think the average desktop replacement-y €500 plastic laptop will have a place in many homes for a long time. The thought of typing exclusively on a virtual keyboard on a tablet sounds too unappealing for any kind of serious typing.

Tablets just seem like yet another luxury consumer device, something like a third or fourth computer. At the moment, comparing a €500 tablet or a €500 laptop/desktop the laptop wins out for sheer value.

For my own prediction, I think that all-in-one systems will become more popular combined with the ease of use of *shudder* (I don't like that word) cloud computing systems. Let the average user use that type of thing for web and word uses, while more demanding users have decent hardware and local compute power of their own.

andy1249

If you work in the industry , like me , the rule is that if its available in the shops , its already obsolete , the stuff on the productions lines at my place of work is way ahead of anything you can currently buy.

The stuff on the lines now will be for sale next year.

As far as any single laptop goes , to the user it will be obsolete in 3 - 5 years.

As it stands , tablets are no replacement for a laptop , regardless of what marketing nickname it has ( netbook , ultrabook , etc. are all just marketing terms that have replaced the old habit of selling PC's by whatever clock speed they were running at! )

The current generation of tablets are media consumption devices , they are toys , not much use for serious computing.

When they can competently run the likes of photoshop , working versions of Office , not just readers , and genuinely productive versions of software like Autocad , then they will be competition for serious machines , until then , they are simply home entertainment.

Torqay

Togepi wrote: »

Well then when will iPads and tablets become more common than laptops?

When they provide for design, image processing, serious office work, programming, video editing and the likes. Right now tablets are not much more than mickey mouse gimmicks compared to the usability of a real computer.

Contrary to popular belief, there is still a bit more to computing than surfing the web or watching a movie.

_AVALANCHE_

Your gonna see a big resurgence in PCs soon, you can get a great specced machine for the same price as a games console now, with all the extra stuff the PC can do, why buy a console.

Combine PC (wired/wireless) with big 40+ inch TV, wireless keyboard and who'd waste money on small screen tablets.

That's what I think anyway.

Paulie Gualtieri

never , tablets are a pain , you have to hunch over them/support them while your using , no doubt some tab owner will start to whinge and tell me how wrong I am , bring it oooowwwnnn (on)

_AVALANCHE_

Paulie Gualtieri wrote: »

never , tablets are a pain , you have to hunch over them/support them while your using , no doubt some tab owner will start to whinge and tell me how wrong I am , bring it oooowwwnnn (on)

I think we can raise the alert status to "Elevated" after this post.

Friel

I don't think they will become obsolete, probably just get better. Look how long the desktop PC has been around.

Togepi

Does everyone here think that most laptops and computers will have a touch screen interface within a few years? (As well as the normal keyboard.)

KTRIC

Togepi wrote: »

Does everyone here think that most laptops and computers will have a touch screen interface within a few years? (As well as the normal keyboard.)

Certainly not. Touching a screen especially one at an angle is not comfortable for a prolonged period of time.

Togepi

KTRIC wrote: »

Certainly not. Touching a screen especially one at an angle is not comfortable for a prolonged period of time.

Good point. It is fun though.

token56

For people interested in performance, and that require a certain level of functionality for work laptops will always be important unless something drastic comes along.

The problem is that the current trend is too shrink devices to make them more mobile but people also like big clear displays for viewing content and the two are at odds. However technologies such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrMfuFXFdf8

could significantly alter the type of devices that people use in the future for recreation. Its a technology at an early stage and it has many obvious flaws but its promising. Some of the most obvious are the impact of surrounding lighting in the room, the need for some flat service, refresh rate etc.

Torqay

token56 wrote: »

The problem is that the current trend is too shrink devices to make them more mobile but people also like big clear displays for viewing content and the two are at odds.

That's not nexessarily true. I was posting recently about the EeePC. IMHO, the 900 series was the ideal netbook, same formfactor as the original 701 but with a 9" display @ 1024x600 with up to 20 GB SSD (if that's not enough, get a few SD cards, for Gawd's sake). Physically they were half the size of todays 10 inchers and significantly lighter too (under 900g).

And then manufacturers have apparently entered the race to build the biggest dwarfs, people wanted BIG hard drives (Never mind them being sluggish as hell with Windows 7, we want our movie collection on it. Oh, and isn't it a pity that the bloody thing doesn't play DVDs?), bigger displays, bigger keyboards, bigger touchpads, you name it. With the result that we now see 12" laptops being sold as "netbooks".

I'd say we will see 12" tablets before long.

Cuddlesworth

As soon as the keyboard is replaced with something functional, the personnel computer will change or disappear. Until that point, heat will force the continuation of desktops being the powerhouse, laptops being the middle man and tablets/Ultrabooks being the rich man's toy.

biko

Paulie Gualtieri wrote: »

never , tablets are a pain , you have to hunch over them/support them while your using , no doubt some tab owner will start to whinge and tell me how wrong I am , bring it oooowwwnnn (on)

http://twisternederland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/104.jpg

GreenWolfe

Enough talk of touchscreens! I really want a Model M or Unicomp keyboard right now. Buckling springs ftw! They're so expensive though

Torqay

You could use one of these dead-kewl USB laser keyboards (if Apple hadn't forgotten the USB port in the iPad, that is) :P



(and yes, they work quite good)

yoyo

I couldn't imagine how stressful it would be trying to type a document using an on screen keyboard. So I certainly doubt tablets would take over for business use and certainly I would prefare a physical keyboard than an on screen one for prolonged use.

Nick

skinny90

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

think that all-in-one systems will become more popular combined with the ease of use of *shudder* (I don't like that word) cloud computing systems.

May I ask why you dont like them?

GreenWolfe

skinny90 wrote: »

May I ask why you dont like them?

If you interpreted that to mean that I don't like all-in-ones, I didn't mean all in ones.

It's just that I really don't like using the term "cloud computing", it's more the type of term you have to use because everyone else does, if you know what I mean. It's just a new spin on computer timesharing imo, and a lot of BS-ing goes on about it.