Computer users are untying themselves from the desk.
The independent International Data Corporation reports sales of notebooks and laptops grew almost twice as fast a desk-tops in the past year.
Australian sales of mobiles went from 90,000 in 1992 to 129,000 last year _ a 45 per cent growth. Total value was $413 million and the 1994 projection is $500 million.
Toshiba headed the list with 21 per cent, with Compaq closing fast at 18 per cent and Apple third at 15 per cent.
Of the mobiles, notebooks (A4 size) and sub-notebooks are swamping the larger laptops or luggables.
What is driving these trends?
First performance. Colour, 486DX and very large hard disks not possible several years ago are common place.
Second cost. Though colour is still expensive, it is reachable for businesses.
Third. Availability of portable attachments like CD-ROM drives and tiny printers.
Fourth new uses. A big new use is demonstrations for individual clients. banks, insurance companies and computer software companies are taking their products to clients more easily on mobile computers, which perform as well as any desktop.
So why have a desktop?
They are cheaper. The screen is usually clearer and easier to work with. The keyboard is easier and has more keys. They are more ergonomically sound. And they are easier to upgrade and add bits to (indeed some mobiles are impossible to upgrade; they have to be replaced).
Many small businesses and households have the best of both worlds. One to work with and one to go.
People who own a mobile or get one as a second computer, usually keep the desktop.
As the cost of colour mobiles comes down, however, expect desktops to become rarer.
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An Australian company Oz-Email has just upgraded its Canberra connection to Internet _ the 20 million member computer network which connects educational institutions, community groups, commerical organisations and individuals with tonnes of information and messages. It is the nearest thing to the information super-highway.
New users can get to the Internet through Oz Email with a one-off registration fee of $25 and $5 an hour off-peak or $10 an hour peak. Registration is on-line with credit card Phone 2572662 using Windows Terminal or similar software and follow the instructions. You can have a trip around the information nets of the world, Australian Associated Press and other news services and cheap national and international messaging and fax. If you mention The Canberra Times you get five hours free.
Oz-Email also supplies a Windows interface. More on this next week.
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A new set of digital maps covering Queensland was launched by the Department of Administrative Services’s Australian Surveying and Land Information Group last week.
The maps _ available on CD, disc or tape _ can be used to model specialist environmental, transport and other geographical databases.
By the end of July mapping of the the whole of Australia will be available.
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Vodaphone has announced an agreement with Globalstar to provide a satellite-based worldwide mobile phone system from 1998. It will not only be for yuppie international travellers, but for those who go to remote areas in Australia, by foot or on road _ miners, farmers, bushwalkers, skiers etc.
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The acting Minister for Industry, Chris Schacht, has announced that Compaq, the first company to join the Government’s Fixed Term Arrangement scheme in 1992, exceeded its first year forecast resulting in $15 million of new information technology exports from Australia.
He said Compaq’s R and D in Australian mounted to $2 million and its FTA will generate $42 million of industry development in Australia with Australian companies.
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Apple continues its fight against incompatibility with the world of DOS. It has produced a prototype DOS compatibility card with a 486DX processor. Installed on a Mac it will enable users to run thousands of DOS and Windows programs and enable file exchanges between DOS and Mac.