The foothold that notebook computers have managed to gain in the client-computing sector over the past five or so years is nothing short of astounding.
Pundits are continuing to predict the demise of the desktop even as the erosion of this market by notebooks shows early signs of slowing.
“The reason for this is easy to explain,” says Terence Barter, Dell product manager at Tarsus Technologies.
“It's quite simply that the technology refresh cycle - at least as far as consumer technology buyers is concerned - has sped up to the point where it makes more sense to replace one's computer every two years than it does to spend money on extending its lifespan.”
Barter believes the whole reason for owning a desktop computer, namely guaranteeing some upgradability through being able to easily swap older components out for newer ones, is dying out.
“Apart from the fact that virtually nobody goes to the trouble of checking whether or not their desktop is upgradable at the time of purchase, the pace of change in technology in the desktop sector is as alarming as in the notebook sector.
“That means that the only items in the desktop component arsenal that are likely to remain behind during such an upgrade are the power supply, casing, keyboard, mouse, monitor and possibly the hard disk,” he says.
“In the motherboard, CPU, memory and graphics processing worlds, two years is a lifetime, and therefore, cause for complete replacement. And where these items still have some life in them, chances are their complementary components will have changed so dramatically they will no longer be compatible,” he says.
These factors might be one of the reasons all-in-one desktops, which face the same challenges as notebooks in the upgradeability stakes, have taken off the way they have, says Barter.
Barter says consumers are comfortable with being limited to hard disk and memory upgrades when buying a notebook or all-in-one desktop today.
“If they weren't, they wouldn't be buying these 'clearly limited' devices. And quite frankly, the numbers don't lie,” he concludes.
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Tarsus Technologies
With more than 27 years of experience in the ICT industry, Tarsus is the leading value-added distributor in South Africa, specialising in the supply of the world's foremost PC and peripheral hardware brands to the local reseller channel.
Tarsus strives to meet the channel's needs for credit funding, stock availability and efficient logistics, ensuring that resellers are able to deliver the highest quality service to their customers, focus on support and compiling the best overall solutions for their end-user customer base at the lowest possible cost.
The company prides itself on its flexibility, adaptability, knowledge, skills and successful track record combined with an industry-leading ability to manage large roll-outs. These are the reasons Tarsus has consistently been rated as the top distributor in the country by international vendors, resellers and the IT media alike.
With its strong commitment to the South African channel, Tarsus is able to not only make the reseller channel more efficient, but more importantly, it plays a vital role in dramatically reducing the costs of doing business in the local ICT market.
Tarsus distributes a range of products from the world's leading manufacturers, including Acer, APC, Cisco, Dell, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Meissner, Microsoft, OKI Printing Solutions and Samsung.
Tarsus' head office is situated in Johannesburg with branches in Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Nelspruit. Tarsus has also extended its footprint into Africa with branches in Namibia, Botswana and Mauritius.
More information about Tarsus is available at: http://www.tarsus.co.za.
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