Having a laptop computer has gone from
cool luxury to a workplace necessity.
Laptops are on a trajectory to overtake desktop
computers in businesses as prices ease, battery
life increases, screen quality improves and wireless
Internet access becomes more pervasive.
In 1999, one in every five office computers
a laptop. Now it’s one in three, according to research
firm IDC. By 2009, IDC projects that laptop
shipments to businesses will surpass shipments
of desktops.
Although laptops, or notebooks, are still
slightly more expensive than desktop computers,
businesses say they are paying the extra
cost to get more productivity.
“Laptops usually cost a couple of hundred
dollars more, but you don’t need to provide
leading-edge machines for employees,”
said Todd Massey, co-founder and chief
executive officer of Privacy NETworks
in Fort Collins. Computer
use at his 20-person, e-mail security
company is split
50-50 between desktops
and laptops.
“You can get some
brand new HP
(Hewlett-Packard) laptops for
$500.” he said. “It’s not like the old days
when it was a $700 to $800 difference.”
Workers produce more
Laptop shipments to businesses
were up 24 percent in the second
quarter of this year from the
comparable quarter in 2004.
Desktop shipments grew 7.9 percent
during the same period.
“America’s workforce is very
mobile. Large sales forces, even
administrative offices are using
laptops,” said IDC analyst David
Daoud. “Thirty-seven percent of
all PCs shipped in the second
quarter were laptops or portable
PCs.”
The availability of wireless Internet
access and technological
advances that have made the
computing power of laptops
nearly equal to desktops are key
factors driving adoption of laptops
in the workplace. Instead of
being tethered to a desk, employees
can take their mobile machines
and work from the airport,
hotel or even coffee shop
and connect to the Internet.
“Definitely the increasing
ubiquity of Wi-Fi is all the more
incentive to buy a notebookm,”
said Roger L. Kay, president of
Massachusetts-based consulting
firm Endpoint Technologies Associates
Inc. “Notebooks are not
only performing better but meet
the minimum requirements for
basic needs. It’s everything a
desktop can do, but it’s mobile”
Although Melissa Melancon
was issued a laptop five years
ago when she started working
for IBM Global Services in Boulder,
the addition of high-speed
Internet service and a wireless
home network two years ago increased
her ability to get more
work done from her Loveland
home. Thirty-nine percent of
IBM’s worldwide workforce
works remotely.
“From a communications
standpoint, with a cable modem
I can be on the phone at the same
time I need to search the Internet
or company’s Intranet,” said
Melancon, who works 24 hours a
week from home while raising
her family. “It improves communication
among employees. Almost
everyone I know at IBM
has a laptop.”
Now that it’s easier to have a
“mobile office,” employees are
expected to be just as productive
if not more productive
when equipped with a laptop.
“I expect fewer excuses,” said
Sharon Linhart, president of
13-person Linhart McClain Finlon
Public Relations in Denver.
“If you’re on a business trip and
have taken your laptop you’re going
to be even more productive.”
Linhart was the first person at
the company to receive a laptop
six years ago. Today, more than
half of her employees have
them.
At Lockheed Martin, traveling
management officials are required
to keep up with their
workloads while on the road.
The aerospace and defense giant
employs 130,000 people worldwide,
including 10,345 in Colorado.
About 9,500 of those Colorado
workers have computers and
about 25 percent of those are laptops.
The use of mobile devices
is rising at the company.
Lockheed spokeswoman
Elaine Hinsdale said that in the
past few years the company has
provided laptops to more employees,
although she could not
give the percentage increase.
Extra security measures
“We have seen the pendulum
swing in the past few years,” she
said. “It’s anytime, anywhere
computing.”
Providing laptops to employees
has increased demands on
Lockheed’s information technology
department, because it must
keep track of thousands of mobile
computers around the
world that contain sensitive
company information.
“The majority of our work is
for the U.S. government and it is
paramountwe protect the security
and meet the needs of our customers,”
she said. “It’s important
that the network of Lockheed
Martin remains secure if
one these laptops got into the
wrong hands.”
Staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson
can be reached at 303-820-1088
or kjohnson@denverpost.com.
