Throughout the history of computing, there have been trade-offs. For years, desktop computing was priced just out of reach of the middle middle-class, only accessible by the upper middle and upper classes. As technology improved – more memory, faster processors, and more disk space – the prices stayed the same. Finally, the icicle of desktop prices began melting, slowly thawing with a few drips at first but eventually turning into a roaring river.
The same thing has happened with laptops, just shifted a few years. Up until now, it has been impossible to have computing power and mobility and mass availability combined; you could have any combination of two out of three, but never all three. As laptops became more sophisticated and more powerful with better quality, the prices remained nearly constant. The lower middle class couldn’t easily capitalize on the technology and had to resort to doing computing on the home desktop.
The prohibitive cost of laptops stimulated the growth of the hand held devices. Granted, these devices will not go away – they have a definite advantage over laptops for many applications and in many environments – but hand held devices do not have the same power and user interface advantages that a laptop inherently has (larger display screens for viewing multiple things at once; using a keyboard for input instead of fumbling with thumbs on tiny buttons; and a wealth of software). Now that laptop prices are approaching the cost of a hand held, the average consumer is going to have more options.
The consumer will have more freedom than ever to have full computing power away from the desk. Whether the employee is working at a home office, or in the local park, or on the top of a mountain 500 miles away, the capability is there for an affordable portable computer solution. So many more people will have connectivity, allowing the world to be more flexible and in touch.
What this will really mean for society is yet to be seen, but think of it like this. Automobiles were once for the elite driver; now they’re everywhere. Televisions were once for the elite viewer; Electrician Unemployment now they’re everywhere. Cell phones were once for the elite consumer only; now these phones are everywhere. And laptops were once for the rich and/or the techie; soon they will be everywhere.
This will change how businesses operate, especially the more low tech shops that have had little use for technology in the past. The employee in the field who has relied on phone calls to relay information may soon have Industrial Electrician Jobs Near Me access to laptops that are as affordable as cell phones. It’s not that much of a stretch to think of anybody in the service industry pulling out a laptop to record or retrieve data or to issue a billing statement.
The cheap laptop that allows the masses to tie in and get connected like never before may also instigate social changes. No longer will the laptop user be confined to being the man in the business suit waiting for his flight at the airport gate. The laptop user will be the worker who has stopped at a fast food place to eat, or the farmer out in the field, or the hunter hiding in a duck blind. Well, maybe that’s a stretch. The point is that there will be changes. The doors have been opened and the sky is the limit!
