
Notebooks now make up over 70 percent of Mac sales - transburgh
http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/26/notebooks-now-make-up-over-70-percent-of-mac-sales/
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mdasen
That's not so surprising. Notebooks as a whole are gaining a lot of ground and
have been since LCDs became standard as monitors and Intel moved away from the
Pentium architecture for their Core processors which bring mobile processing
power not into parity, but close enough that people prefer the portability.
Plus, how much value does an iMac give you? I'm not saying it's a bad machine,
just that the big advantage over my MacBook Pro is the screen. Yeah, it's a
little cheaper and a little more powerful, but (apparently) that's not enough
for people to sacrifice the mobility of a notebook.

Even beyond that, I think it's safe to say that people are starting to demand
mobility over power. Netbooks look like the next big thing, web browsing is
often one of the most taxing things many people do on their computers, etc.
The argument for desktops is diminishing - it's easy to get more than enough
power for 95% of users in a notebook form.

And Apple buyers tend to be a little avant-garde (or at least we like to think
so).

~~~
ROFISH
_"Plus, how much value does an iMac give you?"_

I do care gaming. It came with an 8800, mobile variant of course, but good
enough of a reason back in April. It's still quite a bit better than the stock
9600 the new MBPs have. Plus the 24" screen is nothing to sneer at when you
have to code all day. The 24" screen is an IPS screen compared to all MBs and
MBPs TN screens. (Higher quality) I'd much rather have those three than a
beefy laptop.

While not truly "coffee-shop mobile", it's still useful for when you drive to
your parent's place for the holidays since all you need is iMac, keyboard, and
mouse.

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jcapote
This isn't surprising as their desktop lineup is rather extreme; Your choice
on the desktop is either a toy computer (that can't drive dual displays), an
overpriced/overpowered super computer, or a monitor-computer chimera (that
isn't upgradeable). I'm not sure if this is done on purpose, but I wouldn't be
surprised if they just eventually stopped making desktops.

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quoderat
I find any computer without at least a 20" screen unusable, so no notebook as
a desktop replacement for me.

My custom-built desktop is also about 1.5-2x faster than any laptop currently
made, so also no thanks in that respect.

~~~
raamdev
When I got a 15" MacBook Pro (2.4ghz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HD, Glossy LED screen), I
quickly discovered my desktop became obsolete and I unexpectedly stopped using
it. It's not that it became obsolete tech-wise; there was just no reason to
continue using it.

My MBP has enough power to run OS X + two VMs (Debian and WinXP) so everything
I could ever need to do, I can do on my MBP. (For gaming, I installed Win XP
on a second partition and boot to that when I need to get some FPS in.) And
since I bring it to work and use it there too, it's basically the only
computer I use from day to day.

(Of course, the downside to this is that it's also a single point of failure.
Just yesterday I got to work and discovered my laptop's screen was blank. It
turned out to be the infamous NVidia defect that created much commotion last
year. But, even though I was 6 months past the warranty, Apple is fixing it
free of charge: <http://tinyurl.com/ctz3h9>. Luckily, I also create bootable
backups on a fairly regular basis.)

On the big screen issue, I've found it has less to do with the physical size
of the screen as it does the screen resolution and your multi-tasking habits.
If you really need more screen real estate, use the Unix screen utility or
some form of desktop switching with keyboard shortcuts.

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quoderat
I tried switching to a laptop-only existence several years ago. Didn't work
for me.

I have an Apple 23" Cinema Display as my primary monitor, and a 19" Hyundai as
my second monitor. I'd be lost and be much less productive without this screen
real estate.

And ever tried watching movies on a laptop? It sucks. But my Cinema Display
handles this beautifully.

Glad it works for you. Won't work for me, however.

~~~
raamdev
I frequently watch full-screen movies on my 15" MBP while laying on the couch
7ft away. In fact, I don't watch (or have) a TV, so it's really my only
option. Then again, I have really good eyesight and I grew up without a TV in
the house, so maybe that's why. :)

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pclark
even if I worked in a windows environment I'd try and get a MacBook and
install XP.

