Consumers Favored Laptops Over Desktops

A recent survey suggests more consumers are twice as likely to be a laptop, netbook or tablet rather than a traditional desktop computer.

Thirty five percent of the 2,000 consumers surveyed by research firm ABI Research said they would some type of mobile computing device. Slightly less than half said they would go for desktops. Price consideration is one reason the research firm says why people are going for more laptops.

What somewhat surprised us was that while price is still important - in fact, the single most important characteristic for laptops - in other computer types features such as processor speed, screen resolution, and memory, were considered more important. Consumers have a price-range expectation and within that range they look for certain features and specifications, said ABI Research analyst Michael Inouye, in a statement.

Yet even though laptop consumers emphasize price much more than desktop buyers, other functions are not forgotten in mobile computing. In fact, processor speed was typically the most important feature for mobile consumers surveyed.

In netbooks, much media attention has been devoted to the processors because this often has an impact on users' experience. So the majority of consumers cite processor speed as a netbook's most important feature. As well as a definite shift to laptops, there is greater overlap between netbook and laptop segments, said primary research director for ABI Research Janet Wise, in a statement.

Price is actually even less important for media tablets than desktops. Consumers who wanted to buy a tablet said processor speed, screen resolution, memory, screen size, storage and operating system were all more important than price.