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I don't know about you, but I require portability in my life. I require the ability to be able to pack my things up while still being connected to the online world.

I do recognize though, that this need wasn't always so. In the past, portability wasn't even a consideration because the benefit of a computer was its power, and anyone who wanted power would have chosen a desktop. In those near-stone age days, laptops were clunky and unreliable and just too expensive anyway. The PC, on the other hand, could be set up in a common room of the house (for the entire family to use) or in an office cubicle.

Thankfully, we don't live in these times, and because the world is becoming more mobile (and because computer manufacturers are becoming more adept at packing just as much power in small packages), laptops are a much better bargain for most customers than a desktop precisely because of its portability.

First, a laptop is a vital asset for university students. Because a student is spending less time in the dorm room, it makes more sense for him to carry a laptop around so that he can do research in a lounge or in a library, or, if his professors allow it, to take notes in the classroom. Furthermore, as more campuses become completely wireless, the mobile student (who has a laptop) will be able to take advantage of the net anywhere he goes.

Laptops allow workers to be connected to affairs at the job wherever they are. This means that they can afford to take more time on vacation but keep in contact with what is happening at the office or, in what is becoming more common as the market becomes more global, workers can more quickly re-station overseas if they don't have to worry about a complicated desktop setup for an office at home. The classic image of a businessperson working on a report or even reading news at an airport terminal is the classic homage to this concept.

Desktops still have their uses, of course. When someone needs only the latest and greatest, most powerful machines, desktops can offer a better power-per-dollar range. After a certain point, laptops become either much too expensive or much too heavy to take advantage of higher power processors or video cards, so if you must have advanced graphical or processing capability at your fingertips, then a desktop would be the better bet.

Learn more about this author, Andrew Spriggs.
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