Where the stationary work PC survives (I think): point of sale like desks that are half way between cash register (not personal at all) and notebook computer (each employee got their own). E.g. the computer feeding the screen at the hotel check-in counter. Not a big market relative to the number of systems existing because they aren't frequently replaced and when they are replaced, very cheaply, but the number existing is huge. And leaning to the PC side a lot, I think?

Workstation-grade, I'd say, is extremely limited and shrinking fast. Particularly outside of the tinkerer niche. Think "gamer", even if I suspect that actual gaming isn't half as big in that niche as marketing approaches would suggest. But in any case very much not-Apple.

Any front desks, if they have a computer it will be a desktop.

Any cubicle farms, like call centres.

University labs, Hospitals.

Manufacturing plants, gas stations, mechanic shops, every single retail store, restaurants, movie theaters, bars, call centers, farms, police stations, prisons, libraries, etc. Basically everywhere my guy. The world isn't just dev shops.

I would expect any call centre type operation would have desktops.

The employees would never work from home (outside of a pandemic) and work set hours.

So if desktops costs less, they will of course be used here since there is nothing to be gained from paying extra. Similarly, these users would not be using pricier Apple products.

I do Windows application development and the company I work for is all desktop machines. Some of the static analysis tools need a lot of RAM and CPU (I have 128 GB and a pretty new Threadripper with a lot of cores). There aren’t good laptop options for this type of development machine, at least not ones I’d like to use (ie minimal fan noise).

What’s the point of using a laptop with a docking station? You still need an external keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. Is the main reason to save money? Or is it because laptops are now more powerful than desktop PCs?

For example, do MacBook Airs paired with external monitors perform better than traditional PCs? If not, are people opting for MacBook Pros with docks instead? And if so, is a top-tier MacBook Pro with an external monitor and keyboard actually cheaper than a Mac Studio setup?