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Personal computers are started to be developed in the late 1970s and into the 1980s for household use. Today, the desktop computers are an amazing device that almost each family around the world had it in their home. Computers have made it very easy for everyone and they allow us to access the internet and all of the other information that is hooked up throughout the world. They let us take part in interactive video games and type up letters to friends as well as balance our checkbooks. With the access of a computer, we can watch movies or download music or make our own compact disks. The constant change of computer technology has made it becoming less expensive and more powerful every day. However, if you want to look at your email over a cup of coffee at your local Starbucks, or key in a memo while you are riding the bus, or reading a note while taking a plane, then you are mostly out of luck. Basically, desktop computers are really useful, but with their sizes and a heavy load of cables made them not very handy or convenient to bring.

Fortunately, the inconvenience of a desktop computer has been made aware to the computer manufacturers and they understand that some of us would like to take our computers with us, and thus, the creation of notebook computer. Notebook computers, similar to their desktop relatives, have also grows to be much cheaper and more powerful in the past couple of years, and they have also gotten a lot smaller in sizes. Six or eight years ago, a notebook computer was nearer to the size of a reference book than a notebook, and it weighed about just as much. However, today’s notebook computers are much nearer to the size and shape of a real notebook (though maybe three-subject notebooks but most aren’t quite to one-subject size yet). The rapid progress and changes have also been made in the amount of power that manufacturers can cram into a notebook computer. A few years back, it simply wasn’t possible at all to pack the power of a desktop computer into a small notebook. Today, these high-powered notebook computers are plentiful and you can almost get it anywhere. One thing though, they does cost about twice as much as their desktop twins.

So who actually more require the need of a notebook computer? Well, the most apparent candidates are probably the students and those who travel around a lot when they work. It is apparent that notebook computers are created in mind to let you get so much more done while you are on the go. It is apparent that having a portable workstation is a huge bonus for the students because they often find themselves studying and writing in the libraries, coffee shops, restaurants and sometimes even at their desks. The same goes towards those that needs to gets a lot of their work done while absent from their desks, or at least anyone who would like to do the same as well. For those people who constantly work at home or on their tables, they most likely can’t find a good reason for purchasing a notebook computer that cost twice more than a desktop computers and which in the end they didn’t have a much use to it. However, if this is for those who are always on the go, then a notebook computer will definitely help you to get a lot of your work done while you are out about in the world and not on your desk.

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Interesting, just one point though:

"Almost each family around the world" Sadly, not even close. In the USA, we see a very high level of computer ownership, be it PC's, notebooks or smart cell phones. In Western Europe and some places in the Far East, there is a high, though not as high as in the USA, level of ownership. But the flip side of the coin is that in many places in Africa there is little or no electricity, money and low levels of literacy, and computers are few and far between. The ownership of PC's and PC like devices is still low in places in the Middle and Far East, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East etc.

PC usage, access to the internet, and all the other things that people living in the affluent societies take pretty much for granted take a very definite second, third or even lower place when you have nowhere to live, no job, nothing to eat, no unemployment safety net, and little or no formal education.
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Most true. Internet access is so ubiquitous in the States that we tend to forget how spotty and nonexistent it is in other places.

I've been seeing another trend lately: A lot of folks are using smart phones (at least for browsing and e-mail) everywhere. They look up on-line prices while they're in a "brick-and-mortar" store for comparisons. They look up movie reviews while discussing whether or not to go see one. It's not just iPhones either. A lot of folks are getting into ubiquitous connections. I suspect that when a large percentage of people are always-connected, we'll see a shift in thinking like what happened when high-speed Internet rushed past the 50% mark.

It makes it even more important to deal with issues of how to get decent computing power into portable packages.

MeanSquare said: "A lot of folks are using smart phones (at least for browsing and e-mail) everywhere."


Astute and insightful as always. I fear the dreaded "convergence device" based on the cell phone that you discussed some time ago is creeping up on us, and may well sound the death knell of the "true" handtop during this period of economic adversity. By the time a sufficiently large number of people can again afford to buy a handtop, cell phones coupled to the internet will have become powerful enough and so ubiquitous that they may well have squeezed handtops right out of the market. A dreadful prospect in my view.
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GreatDane, it might spell the decline of handtops that are pen input or thumb input but there is still an uptapped market for handheld PC's. What I mean is a touch type keyboard full Windows computer you can carry in your inside jacket pocket. That type of device is the perfect replacement for a laptop for millions of people but I do not think the 7" to 7.5" length required to enable it to have good touch type keyboard features would make it as likely to be a convergence device.

"a touch type keyboard full Windows computer you can carry in your inside jacket pocket"
My first reaction was essentially like yours. "I don't think that's possible." Yet I've been surprised before. Using something like the "Butterfly Keyboard" that appeared on some early Thinkpads, you could conceivably have a device that you could fit inside your pocket and yet with a full-sized keyboard. Using something like the Virtual Keyboard, but with a decent battery life, you'd need only enough flat space to type on.

Another issue would be screen size. With a decent keyboard and decent computing power, people will want to be able to see what they're doing. Again, a 7" to 7.5" length might not provide enough real estate.
This issue might be solvable with a fold-out style screen using something like an OLED.

The Psion 5mx had a keyboard that was very easy to touch type yet the computer was only 6.9" x 3.6" so if that design was used and increased to 7.5" x 4.25" it would have an amazingly easy to type keyboard. Your IBM butterfly is an excellent idea that can also work as well. Another is the "dragonfly" concept recently proposed by a Ph.D. where it has a near full size keyboard that folds yet is still jacket pocket in size.

I've used handhelds which varied from 6.9" to 7.3" but all were only 3.6" in width and they were all large enough to read what I was typing so if it was a bit wider, say up to 4.25" that would make a big positive difference. The old handhelds of the HPC 2000 OS CE days proved the shape is very functional even at a mere 3.6" in width so building it more around the actual jacket pocket can allow it to be a little longer and wider which will make it very functional. If the Psion 5mx was made today using UMPC technology so it ran Windows and was the same old size or better yet the larger size I recommended I would easily buy one and be able to do everything I can with my laptop with no problems at all. There is no need to wait for some new technology break through but rather just a more in tune computer company to design a more functional pocket laptop using current technology and the UMPC market would finally get a boost in sales.

The issue is not what people NEED in a notebook but what they want and what sells. There are basically two types. One is the general generic 17" screen, huge keyboard, lots of built in stuff. The other is like the Sharp Netwalker. Does all the stuff and has a 5" screen, touchtypeable keyboard, about six inches long 3.5 to 4.2 inches wide, pen input, does wireless, less than a pound and is easy to pocket. Shirt, pants, coat whatever. And the MOST IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT. VERY INEXPENSIVE!! Sharp does it better and less expensiver which is why the Netwalker will succeed and the others, except for Palm, fail.
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