Notebook refresh
PorTable
Persuasion
ConvergenCe of priCe, performanCe and produCtivity
make notebook pCs a “gotta-have.”
Forget the big beige desktop computers that used to decorate corporate offices.
Today’s organizations are arming their employees with notebook PCs. »»»
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Lower prices and a wide variety of styles have made »»» The biggest reason for switching to notebooks
notebooks a viable financial alternative for businesses. While comes down to a simple equation: portability
better processing power has made these portable PCs suitable equals productivity.
for all but the most demanding users.
But the biggest reason for the switch, according to John
However, most knowledge workers don’t need workstation
Jacobs, director of notebook market research at the research
performance. You can easily find notebooks outfitted with
firm DisplaySearch, comes down to a simple equation:
embedded (built-in) Wi-Fi, wide-area broadband and Bluetooth
portability equals productivity.
connectivity, spacious hard drives, dual-core processors, ample
memory, wide-screen displays and sophisticated graphics cards.
» Move To Mobile As for security, HP, Sony and Toshiba are offering fingerprint
Technology and design improvements have not only lowered authentication and other high-end security features.
the price of mobile PCs but also significantly improved their
The next generation of notebooks will soon get another
value proposition relative to desk-based PCs. The relative
performance boost with the upcoming release of Intel Centrino
value of notebooks has also been bolstered by the continued
2 processor technology. Intel’s newest mobile platform is based
expansion of mobile access.
on the company’s latest 45-nanometer process technology and is
“We’ve seen 50 percent of large- and medium-sized said to provide “best-in-class” performance and battery life.
businesses buying notebooks,” says Howard Locker, Lenovo’s
Intel Centrino 2 processor technology will offer initial clock
director of new technology, desktop and mobile development.
speeds up to 2.8GHz. It will also include integrated hardware
“Five years ago it was 15 percent.
decode for high-definition video.
“Anyone who is a knowledge worker [individuals who work
In addition, it’s designed to offer longer battery life, making
at the tasks of developing and using knowledge] is going to
it especially suitable for subnotebooks (those slightly lighter
need a notebook,” he adds. “The benefits of 24x7, anyplace
and smaller than a full-size notebook computer). Additionally,
connectivity outweigh any of the negatives with a notebook.”
it will offer the option of integrated WiMAx (technology that
If there’s one word to sum up the drive to notebooks, it’s provides wireless data over long distances) connectivity for
“mobility.” And there’s one thing you can’t do with a desktop: greater wireless broadband access.
take it with you wherever you go.
“It all goes back to Moore’s Law [the number of transistors
For certain types of workers — for example those in customer placed on a chip will double approximately every two years],”
service or call centers — desktop PCs are still the standard. In Locker says. “You go back five years ago; the notebook wasn’t
fact, they’re preferable, due to the cost savings in both initial powerful enough for most knowledge workers. Notebook
purchase and ongoing maintenance. performance will never be as good as a desktop, but it’s good
But for most corporate workers, mobility is more important enough for everybody.”
than ever. “The power of notebooks is that they allow people to
work outside the traditional office space,” says Leslie Fiering, » breaking new ground
research vice president at Gartner Research. “The size, weight New technologies such as Solid-State Drives (SSDs) and LED
and performance level of notebooks allows workers to take backlit displays are upping the ante even further by requiring
their office anywhere.” less power, thus improving battery life. DisplaySearch’s Jacobs
notes that SSD drives alone can increase battery life by 25-to-
» PerFeCT sTorM 30 minutes.
Just as people expect to be able to make and receive phone “Battery technology is improving very slowly,” Jacobs says.
calls anywhere, we expect to be able to connect anywhere, “You’re lucky to get 10-to-15 percent improvement per year
anytime. And that is the driving force behind Jacobs’ portability — and that’s a good year. LED backlighting and solid-state
equals profitability equation. drives allow manufacturers to take as much power out of their
“I couldn’t do my job without a notebook,” Jacobs says. “It systems without sacrificing performance.”
affords me a tremendous amount of flexibility in that I can Then there’s the variety of notebooks available. As recently
work anywhere and anytime.” as three years ago, most notebooks were generally the same.
Lower prices have certainly contributed to the cause. Only a You could either get a model with a 15-inch display and CD-
few years ago, a notebook PC would cost twice as much as a RW drive as a desktop replacement, or a 12-inch display, often
comparable desktop unit. Today, the difference is only a couple without a built-in media drive, to use as a travel unit.
of hundred dollars — and falling. Today’s portable PCs come in many flavors, from desktop
And notebooks no longer play second fiddle to desktops replacements with 17- or even 20-inch displays to wafer-thin,
when it comes to power and features. True, the most powerful featherlight subnotebooks; from tablet PCs with handwriting
notebook can’t compare with the most powerful desktop. recognition to pocket-sized Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs).
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» inTegraTion ConsideraTions
the wireless faCtor: From the productivity side, notebooks pose significant
802.11n and beyond advantages. Still, from an IT perspective, it’s a greater challenge
to integrate notebooks into a corporate environment.
In today’s business environment, wireless rules. Probably more “IT loves the whole concept of a closed, controlled and
than any other factor, wireless connectivity is the main driving managed environment,” says Craig Marking, senior product
force behind the move to notebook computers. And things are marketing manager at Toshiba. “Anytime you add mobility,
only going to get better. you’re adding variables.”
One such variable is damaged hard drives. While a desktop
In the Wi-fi world, 802.11n delivers twice the range and five
isn’t likely to take a spill, notebooks can take a beating from
times the speed of the next fastest standard, 802.11g. though
being dropped or just being lugged around in a bag.
it’s currently still in draft specification, you can find 802.11n
capability built into the newest generation of notebooks. “Mobile systems are going to be inherently exposed to a
wider variety of usage environments, and as a result can easily
but 802.11n isn’t a game changer. for one, there are still too end up with possible damage,” Marking says.
many notebooks and wireless access points currently installed
That’s another reason why SSDs are beginning to appear
with previous incarnations of the 802.11 standard. And any
in more notebooks. (The ThinkPad x300 comes standard
network is only as fast as its slowest point. with an SSD, while Apple offers it as an option for the
Industry watchers believe a couple of emerging technologies MacBook Air).
will become key business tools. WiMAx, for example, promises SSDs are large-capacity flash-memory drives. So unlike
range that can be measured in miles, not feet. traditional magnetic hard drives, they have no moving parts,
making them much less susceptible to mechanical failure.
And with Intel’s Centrino 2 processor technology platform
designed to include built-in WiMAx capabilities, expect more In June, Toshiba released the first notebook with a 128GB
business users demanding WiMAx access. SSD, the Portégé R500-S5007V. Previously, SSD drives in
notebooks topped out at 64GB. By doubling the capacity,
Toshiba has put notebooks with the new drives on par with
Apple and Lenovo in particular have raised the bar for traditional hard-drive storage space.
design in the subnotebook category. Apple’s MacBook Air and “Solid-state drives are going to be a fantastic enhancement,”
Lenovo’s ThinkPad x300, both weighing a hair under three Marking says. “The thing is there’s an absolute price point.
pounds and measuring less than an inch thick, set the new For the foreseeable future, they’re going to be for individuals
standard for mobility and performance. who prioritize above all the reliability they can get from fewer
moving parts.”
What’s more, several new notebooks, from vendors like
Fujitsu, Lenovo and Sony, tip the scales at not much more Aside from hard drives, notebook makers are implementing
than two pounds. For example, Toshiba’s new Portege R500 other reliability features in their products. The ThinkPad x300,
line of notebooks, with 12.1-inch wide-screen displays, comes for example, features carbon fiber “roll cage” technology,
in one configuration that weighs 768 grams or only about 1.7 enabling the device to withstand shocks. Meanwhile, Toshiba
pounds. places bumpers on the four edges of its notebooks as shock
absorbers.
The MacBook Air and ThinkPad x300 represent the
And for certain types of applications, such as construction
premium side of the market. But companies like Lenovo
or field work, you can find rugged notebooks that are designed
and Toshiba target all price points and form factors in their
to take a beating. For example, Panasonic’s Toughbook line of
notebook lines. As Locker points out, different users have
notebook computers offers business-rugged, semi-rugged and
different priorities.
fully-rugged models.
Lenovo’s x Series, for example, features thin and light
One aspect that’s often forgotten is training. Yes, notebooks
notebooks for those who travel frequently. For workers who
are just smaller, self-contained PCs. But there are enough
need larger screens, more ports and better performance,
inherent differences to warrant basic training measures. Power
Lenovo offers the ThinkPad T Series. And for those whose jobs management and Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections,
require lots of document markups, a tablet PC like Lenovo’s for example, are things desktop users don’t have to concern
ThinkPad x Series Tablet can offer a solution. themselves with.
Toshiba markets its Satellite Pro L300 series as a desktop
replacement; its Tecra series is designed to provide a longer » noTebook seCuriTy
lifecycle; and the Portégé line of thin and light subnotebooks The most critical consideration that businesses must consider
targets mobile professionals. relates to security. Notebooks are much more susceptible to
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theft than desktops, leaving valuable intellectual property in
the hands of, well, anyone.
Lenovo’s Locker says companies purchasing notebooks
should look for models that include fingerprint readers, which
keep unauthorized users from accessing data. Fingerprint
readers provide the convenience of storing all of a user’s
various passwords, creating a single login.
Lenovo’s ThinkPads also come with hard drive passwords,
which can be linked to the fingerprint reader. So even if a
notebook is stolen and the hard drive is switched to another
machine, the data on the drive will be inaccessible to anyone
who doesn’t have the password.
Other security measures, such as retina scanners, are also
popping up on notebooks. But DisplaySearch’s Jacobs warns
that such hardware-centric measures can only do so much.
Instead, companies should look to creating policies that make
handling sensitive information more secure.
“One thing all this connectivity allows is that you don’t
need a 100GB hard drive to store all these files,” Jacobs says.
“You need 32GB of flash memory at the most, and you can
access all your critical files wirelessly, whether it’s a cellular or
802.11 network. You can keep that information secure on the
company server as opposed to on any individual notebook.
“For people truly concerned about security, there are a lot
of encryption technologies out there,” he adds. “A biometric
fingerprint reader is great as a convenience measure. Instead
of having to remember 15 different passwords, you can swipe
your finger on your notebook and access what you need. But as
far as security goes, encryption is by far the best approach.”
» CalCulaTing reTurns
So how do you measure that portability is indeed resulting
in increased productivity? After all, notebooks are still
more expensive and require more upkeep than their desktop
counterparts. So how can an organization determine the ROI?
“If you want to do a quick time study, ask yourself if you
have users who can now take notes live in meetings instead
of taking notes on paper and having to transcribe them to a
desktop computer,” Toshiba’s Marking says.
“If once a month an employee can take a computer into
a conference or take it home for a weekend and work on a
project, what’s that cost? If you’re paying someone $100 an
save TiMe by having
hour, all you need are two hours a year to justify most of the Cdw ConFigure
price delta that comes with a notebook. your noTebook PCs
Jacobs concedes that it’s a difficult number to quantify Prior To delivery.
accurately.
“Sometimes it’s a tough sell for companies that are growing,”
he says. “You tell a company that they need to spend $1
million to outfit it with desktops, but $2 million to outfit it
with notebooks. Sometimes that enhanced productivity is
not a concrete number. That might take a little convincing
sometimes.” ◊
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