BARRY COLLINS
Despite a sharp drop in shipments, companies shouldn’t dismiss the idea of kitting out homeworkers with desktops
Despite a sharp drop in shipments, companies shouldn’t dismiss the idea of kitting out their homeworkers with desktop PCs.
Last November, noting that my old laptop was starting to creak, I had a decision to make. Should I go for a powerful desktop with top-notch graphics and more storage than I could ever fill? Or should I sacrifice some of that graphical oomph and storage capacity for a laptop that I can take on my increasingly occasional business jaunts and foreign trips? I plumped for the latter’s flexibility.
Nine months on, circumstances have made me regret that decision somewhat. I’m still a big fan of the MacBook Pro, but given that the coronavirus has left us all decidedly jauntless, I now wonder if I’d have been better off with that desktop.
These ponderings were reinforced recently when I had a chat with the global MD of IT analysts Context, who was trumpeting how well the IT channel had done during the Covid-19 crisis. While the British economy was heading south faster than Dominic Cummings after an eye test, the IT distribution industry grew 2.3% during the second quarter. It normally tracks around 1 or 2% better than GDP, Adam Simon told me, but while GDP had plunged 20%, IT distribution went on a growth spurt.
This was largely due to businesses and education providers rushing to get laptops to employees and students. Given that China (where most laptops are made) was locked down at that start of the year, and in light of the challenges of our own lockdown, the figures were a minor miracle, Simon told me, and a success story for British distributors.
However, there were losers too. While laptops were selling out faster than loo roll, there were “loads of desktops sitting in inventory,” Simon noted. Laptops had shown almost 100% year-on-year growth, while desktop shipments fell by 14%. Sales were down so much that “we’re wondering if it’s the end of the desktop” he said, given that few companies are bringing employees back into offices for the time being.
I began to feel for the poor old desktop. There’s little doubt in my mind that, if you’re working from home even semi-permanently, a desktop setup is better than a laptop. Even with my MacBook Pro, I have an external screen, mouse and keyboard plugged in almost permanently. As lovely as the MacBook Pro’s keyboard is, I barely ever use it.
H ow much worse things are for the millions who are suddenly working from a back bedroom or on kitchen table, hunched over a laptop in a semi-foetal position, banking musculoskeletal problems for years to come.
I have sympathy for business IT buyers too. When a pandemic arrives with almost zero notice, you don’t have long to chew over what’s best for your staff’s long-term wellbeing. You get on the phone and order a hundred laptops from your supplier before the other six million British businesses do. And there’s no doubt that when it comes to reclaiming said device from a departing employee, it’s a darn sight easier to package up a laptop than it is a computer, screen and peripherals.
Still, if working from home does become a long-term trend – and it’s starting to look that way – then I wonder if it could trigger a comeback for the beleaguered desktop. The hardware is comparatively cheaper, especially now there are warehouses piled high with stock. And although it’s possible to tie yourself into RSI-inducing knots when sat at a desktop with monitor, it’s much less likely to cause posture and strain-related issues that bashing away on a tiny laptop for ten hours every day. I wonder how many lawsuits we’re going to get in five years’ time, when laptop-equipped staff find they can’t twist their necks.
L aptops are still a strong option for homeworkers, of course. Given the increasingly cramped living spaces that many of us dwell in, not every worker has space for a full desktop setup. And, if they have the budget, there’s nothing to stop laptop users from doing what I do with the MacBook, creating a pseudo-desktop with the advantage of that secondary display to work with too.
Still, if I could turn back the clock and make my November buying decision again, I’d go for a desktop. I hope companies give employees the option to do likewise when it comes to supplying the next round of equipment for homeworkers.
That said, do you want to hear the most hypocritical, column-defeating point of them all? I’ve written this column on my iPad, whilst sitting in the back garden, trying to escape the heatwave-induced sweat bucket that is my home office. Maybe we don’t need laptops or desktops, after all…
There’s little doubt in my mind that, if you’re working from home even semi-permanently, a desktop setup is better than a laptop
I wonder how many lawsuits we’re going to get in five years’ time, when laptop-equipped staff find they can’t twist their necks