I might be in the minority here but I've never found a desktop PC to be particularly restrictive[1]; the main things tying me to a desk when I want to accomplish something are a good chair, a few large monitors and a quality keyboard. I could buy a laptop, sure, but I'd still need somewhere with these amenities and saving a couple of cubic feet of living space seems irrelevant.<p>[1] The words "big" and "boxy" seem needlessly pejorative to me. I don't complain about my big, boxy sofa which indisputably takes up more of my house.
It might actually be true this time, but haven't articles like this been coming out every year or so for the past 20 years? Maybe longer--- it was sort of the rhetoric Apple was using in the mid-80s, when they pronounced the era of the big bulky box dead, heralding the era of sleek, light-weight machines like the all-in-one Macintosh and the fits-in-a-briefcase Apple //c.
I found this bit the most interesting :<p>'Joshua Topolsky, Engadget's editor, recently called for tech companies to create what he calls the "continuous client," a system that will enable you to leave one device and "pick up your session in exactly the same place on the next device you use,"'<p>I really think this is the next big step. It's become to me quite an obvious issue since I got my iPad. I want to be able to play a game on my iPhone and then pick up exactly where I left off on my iPad. Or do the same with videos; newspaper apps etc. The devices should just be a different window into your same data world.
My Mac Mini is easily the best computer purchase I've made. This is coming from someone who used to build own PC systems with the fancy cases, fans, etc. some years ago.<p>It's tiny, it's quiet, and it works like a charm with two 1600x1200 displays. It takes no space on my desk.<p>I did upgrade RAM and the hard drive myself, though, and don't recommend it for the faint-hearted. It was incredibly nice to see Apple introduce an openable case in the latest update.
You can't switch parts in a laptop/nettop. For this reason there will always be a reason to own a tower for savvy users who own multiple computers. One is to be left home while the other is taken on trips. There are enough reliable sync solution, so it isn't an issue.
iPads already have 6% of the market for 2010? Oh, that's a projection too.<p>My netbook is great for working in cafes, and very fast as a development machine, but it is too underpowered for many websites - especially consumer websites that make heavy use of javascript and flash. As the hardware gets faster, software soaks up those cycles, so it's hard for smaller computers to win with moving goalposts.<p>But the iPhone/iPad seems to have managed this, perhaps mostly by eliminating flash. If they take sufficient market share, websites will have to adapt to it.