The Economist writes that as we move into the next 25 years in the lifecycle of the personal computer, laptops are overtaking the sales of the ubiquitous PC. In the U.S. which is still the world’s biggest PC market, sales of laptops will over take desktops by the end of the year.
This shift in consumer tastes has changed the marketing dynamic, from online sales to retail shop purchasing. It appears that while consumers don’t mind ordering desktops over the internet, they want to touch and feel their prospective laptops, since, according to the report, “they are much more of a fashion statement than a beige box under the desk.” The report predicts that future PCs will be “more about taste and much less about technology.”
Well anyone who has traded their aging laptop PC for an Apple MacBook Pro knows exactly what is going on here. The ‘touch me, feel me, see me’ difference can really only be experienced if one gets up close and personal with the (what do we call it?) unit. And as for taste, well Apple simply owns that often illusive and fickle cultural territory.
So will the fashion show of the future see lovely gals, dressed to the hilt, walking the runways casually swinging their laptop in a see-through Salvatore Ferragamo designer bag? Or better yet, a guy dressed in his rumpled Abercrombie un-uniform sporting a Starbuck’s logo’d laptop and coffee cup holder?
I can’t wait.
