Laptops have PCs in their sights

The make up of offices up and down the country is going to change, with laptops tipped to replace desktop PCs as the dominant computer by 2011.

Office desks throughout the UK are home to the familiar bulkier desktop PCs.

But a report by analysts IDC suggests the growth in sales of portable computers is set to dramatically outstrip their chunkier counterparts.

The IDC report predicts an overall yearly growth of 16.1 per cent for notebooks from 2006 to 2001, compared to just 3.8 per cent for desktops.

IDC’s 2006 figures show 82.4 million laptops were sold at a rise of 26.3 per cent compared to a two per cent rise in PC sales of 138.3 million for the year.

Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, said: "A strong portable offering is becoming more important, and while local players have a larger share of international markets, the shift to portables will favour the largest players.

Desktops are expected to see sales boosted in the near future thanks to Microsoft’s new Vista software.

But Mr Loverde insists laptops will continue to out sell desktops, especially with new developments to improve them.

"Portables are picking up some of the slack from desktops and will benefit from improved security, power management, and new designs supported by Vista," he added.

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