Seems to me that in the last year, the price of an entry level desktop is down while the lowest priced laptop has increased in price if anything.
Am I correct in that observation? If so what would be the cause… have the specs of low end machines changed in different respects?
Desktops have gotten about as small as they need to be, and have plenty of room for standard parts and fans. Laptops need to be compact, so they need to be precisely engineered to contain all the latest tech without overheating. That costs money, and the cost is pased along.
Laptops are still something of a luxury item, so the market will bear an accordingly higher price.
High-end laptops tend to lag behind desktops in introducing faster chips, as cooling takes a while to figure out; as a result, the “low end” isn’t that much lower. The price structure of the laptop market is therefore quite different from that of desktops.
There were any number of laptops available on black friday for 299-399. In fact, there was one at CC for 299 (down from 599 or so), which you could apply a $40 off $200 coupon too, and then if you signed up for Vonage, gotten another $200 coupon (so $59+tax).
The deals are there, stores just use them to drive traffic. I imagine the 299 laptop will become more common in the new few weeks as manufacturers phase out single core and Windows XP machines.
I managed to get a Toshiba core duo (2050proc) with 15" widescreen, dvd burner, 568k ram, 80gb HD for $499.00 at Best Buy back in August. I also got a Targus bag, Canon all in one printer, Linksys router, and optical mouse for about another $29 because I bought the laptop.
Not really true any more. laptop sales exceeded desktop sales in 2005. Desktops are cheaper, but laptops are hardly a luxury and seem to be pretty much required in colleges and in lots of businesses. Mine was a good deal at $1,000 two and a half years ago, now they’re much cheaper.
IME there are ALOT of people with laptops who have no real need for them other than convenience. I do support for a chiropractors office that uses laptops all over the place. For the same price I would have set them up with a much better desktop arrangement.