The end of the desktop computer

J.J. Rosen
3 min read
0

When I started our consulting business in 1992, I was young, energetic and totally broke.

With no formal experience in business, I figured that my best chance for success was simply to work hard and keep my expenses as low as possible.

With youth on my side, the hard work part was relatively easy. I loved the work I was doing and had no problem working long hours to get the business off the ground.

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But given that to be a computer consultant you needed to at least have a computer, keeping expenses low presented an immediate challenge. Back then, technology was expensive. Between the computer itself, a monitor and a printer, even the most basic setup was a stretch to my limited budget.

Given that most of my work involved going to my customers’ offices, I wanted to buy a laptop. But in those days, laptops were quadruple the price of desktop PC’s and unaffordable for small businesses like mine.

So, like many young business owners who have more enthusiasm than money, I had to be creative.

I decided to buy a desktop computer, an old-school-TV style monitor, a keyboard — and ... a used frame-backpack (the kind that mountain climbers use to carry their supplies) to carry it all around town. It was my one-person startup founder’s version of a “portable” computer.

I got some strange looks walking into clients’ offices hunched over carrying my loaded down camping backpack with my giant desktop in tow, but what choice did I have? Until I could earn enough to buy a real laptop I had to just improvise.

It was nearly three years and a sore back later that I was finally able to retire my desktop computer clunker (and my giant backpack) and replace it with a modern laptop that was both powerful and portable. And to this day, I’ve never looked back. Since 1995, my days of owning a desktop PC have been over.

As it turned out, my path from desktop computers to laptop computers is far from unique. It wasn’t long ago that power users needed a desktop for its speed and reliability. But nowadays, even smart phones and tablets pack a punch, and mid-range laptops can pretty much handle even the most demanding user’s computing needs. And the price differences between a good desktop and a good laptop are now minimal.

So, with holiday shopping season in full swing, is the desktop PC a relic of the past?

With “work-from-anywhere" becoming the new norm, there’s no doubt that laptops are more popular than ever. By 2025, global laptop sales are expected to grow by $150 billion while desktop sales are predicted to shrink by $45 billion. This trend shows no signs of letting up.

And with more and more applications becoming 100% cloud-based (where all you need is an internet connection and a browser to use them), for most people the extra processing power that you can build inside a desktop chassis is no longer needed.

So, when, if ever, does buying a desktop computer make sense?

Desktops are better for gaming and for some multimedia applications. And for some professions like architecture and engineering a desktop can make sense. They are also worth considering for larger businesses with thousands of employees who need to reduce hardware upgrades and support costs.

But for the rest of us, a laptop is the way to go.

I still have my old desktop and my frame-backpack gathering dust in my garage. I’ve been meaning to haul them away, but without the energy of my youth they are too heavy for me to move.

JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, a Nashville IT consulting and custom software development firm. Visit Atiba.com or AtibaNetworkServices.com for more information.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: The end of the desktop computer

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