MOTHER of two highly kinetic boys Lillian Tan hardly travels out of Singapore. So you'd think that when it comes to PCs, a desktop would be a better choice.
But the application manager at Flowserve, a US-based company which supplies pumps, valves and seals automation, chose a notebook instead.
"It gives me mobility. With a notebook, it makes little difference whether I am at my office, a site or at home," she said.
Lillian, 42, counts among the many notebook PC buyers that are sending the sales of these mobile workhorses skywards.
In 2007, 62 per cent - or 620,000 - of the one million PCs shipped to Singapore were notebooks, said research firm IDC. The rest were desktops.
In the first quarter of this year alone, notebooks accounted for 69 per cent of the 300,000 PCs sold.
"For personal computing, the CPU power in notebooks has already reached the stage where processors today are more than good enough for applications," said Tan Teng Cheong, general manager for Dell Singapore and Brunei.
It's about space, too. The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's 2007 infocomm usage survey found that two out of five households in Singapore have two or more PCs. Given that most people here are flat dwellers, a notebook is a sensible choice.
Cheap moves
ACER'S sales director Florence Koh agrees. "Consumers desire the portability of a notebook and the space-saving benefits it can give them," she said.
Some make notebooks their default choice. "Why be bound to a desktop computer?" asked Lillian.
For road warriors, connectivity counts too.
C. P. Low, 46, business manager of a local financial institution, spent 80 per cent of his time on the road last year.
"With wireless broadband, the sheer convenience of a notebook just can't be beat," he said. "Now you can be fully online even when sitting on the toilet bowl," he added.
Perhaps, the most compelling argument is price.
Teng Cheong said that notebook prices "have dropped significantly so that the differential cost is easily justified by the mobility it affords".
Pay $200 to $250 more than the price of a basic desktop model and you can get a notebook.
As far as size is concerned, the sweet spot is notebooks with 14-inch to 14.9-inch screens which made up 60 per cent of all notebooks sold in 2007.
IDC data for the first quarter of this year indicated a shift away from mid-sized notebooks. The sales of notebooks below 14 inches and more than 16 inches made up 40 per cent (or 120,000) of the market - up from 20 per cent for the whole of 2007.
Teng Cheong believes that small notebooks will remain popular with the mobile workforce in the future. "Larger notebooks, like desktop replacements and mobile workstations, are more niche and better received by power gamers, multimedia designers and CAD users."
cytan@sph.com.sg
This article was first published in The Straits Times, Digital Life on 15 July 2008.
