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If you think of portable computers simply as smaller, lighter versions of their more cumbersome desk-bound cousins, you're only half right. Certainly, for mobile professionals looking to fill all those dead hours spent in airport lounges and hotel rooms, portables are a boon for doing all the tasks they normally carry out on their desktop PC, from word processing to spreadsheets and data base management. More than that, however, features in today's portable computers--particularly the new breeds of notebook computers--are helping to change the ways in which professionals manage their work, outside and even inside the office.
For the mobile worker, today's machine of choice is the notebook computer--between four and eight pounds (including battery) and about 8.5 by 11 inches--or the more recently introduced subnotebook, which weighs between 1.4 and 4.4 pounds and measures only 5.9-7.9 by 8.75-11.1 inches. Both notebook categories together accounted for most of last year's portable sales and for most of the annual growth in the portable category. Almost 98 per cent of last year's portable sales in Canada--for which IDC projected about 230,000 shipments worth more than $500 million--came from notebooks and subnotebooks, says George Bulat, research analyst with Toronto's IDC (International Data Corp.) Canada Ltd.: "Definitely portables, primarily notebooks, are one of the factors responsible for sustaining strong growth in the overall PC market." Bill Fournier, senior market analyst with Evans Research Corp. in Toronto, pegs the notebooks' share a little lower, with luggables and laptops still accounting for almost 12 per cent of 1994 sales. (Palmtop computers that literally fit in the palm of the user's hand and allow you to take minutes, keep track of schedules, store addresses and phone numbers, and communicate with bigger and more powerful computers, garnered almost two per cent).
With double-digit annual growth rates roughly twice the rate for desktop PCs, notebooks are proving an increasingly popular choice among workers on the go. Among their attractions: smaller and lighter machines; greater worker mobility; enhanced communications; and multimedia applications.
Subnotebooks: even smaller packages
Thanks to ongoing miniaturization and improvements in quality, particularly in screen technology, notebooks bundle in much of the power and many of the features of desktop systems, all in a package weighing less than eight pounds. In fact,...