| Desktop PCs alive and still
necessary
12 February, 2006
By Paul Weinberg
The hype around mobile computing may be causing some small
businesses to just purchase laptops for their staff and ignore
some affordable, secure and higher performing desktop PCs.
Putting forth this perspective is Russell Morgan, the president
of the Dallas, Tex.-based Information Technology Solution
Providers Alliance, a nonprofit organization that assists
small and medium sized businesses in the adoption of the latest
computer technology.
Morgan points to a recent study by Gary Chen at the Boston
based Yankee Group indicating a split of 50-50 between the
use of desktop and laptop PCs among very small business that
employ two to 19 employees.
"You hear a lot of press about laptops and mobility
and the ability to work from anywhere. We want to get across
to the decision maker at a small and medium sized business
what products they need to buy," stated Morgan.
Morgan is not anti-laptop. He uses a mobile device because
of the traveling requirements in his job.
Nevertheless, Morgan urges entrepreneurs to avoid jumping
on the latest IT marketing bandwagon when it comes to making
an important systems purchase.
Instead, Morgan urges clients to head in the direction of
a local reseller or solution provider which can guide them
to an IT solution that best fits their needs. And if that
includes laptops or a mix of desktops and laptops, that is
fine because at least the decision is based on something substantial,
he indicated.
"If a small and medium sized business decides to buy
laptops for every employee to improve productivity, they are
going to be disappointed if the business functions are office
oriented."
Gary Chen, the SMB strategies analyst at the Boston-based
Yankee Group, suggests that there are good reasons why very
small businesses might go all laptop.
It is not uncommon in such small companies for employees
to wear different hats in terms of responsibilities, which
may include traveling outside the office or working at home.
Also, the lines between personal and work related relationships
among employees can get blurred, he noted.
However, as the business grows the jobs become more narrowly
defined and the decision is invariably made to purchase desktops
for deskbound employees, explained Chen.
Chen observes that in businesses above 20 employees there
is a three to one ratio in favour of desktop machines when
it comes to using PCs.
"Once you have narrower roles there is only going to
be a small segment that will be using a laptop."
Nevertheless, says Chen, laptops "are eating" into
desktop sales to the point where the two categories are evenly
split 50-50 in the combined consumer and business markets.
The upsurge in laptop is partially consumer driven and very
small businesses buy their IT products "like consumers,"
he added.
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