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Comment by cturner | Hacker News Reader

I think this will look wrong-like-flairs at some future time when we're all looking back and thinking about designs that seemed so cool at the time.

The mega laptop is a dead evolutionary path, because it does its two priorities badly. It's not a good portable, and it's not a good desktop because you have fixed eye position and no configuration opportunity.

I expect the design that dominates the future will involve computers with the form factor of a phone. Users will run a lead between this and a unit that multiplexes one to many monitors when they want monitors, and be able to plug in an external keyboard. I wonder how long it is until mac laptops get offered where they're just a dumb housing for an iphone unit?

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> The mega laptop is a dead evolutionary path, because it does its two priorities badly. It's not a good portable, and it's not a good desktop because you have fixed eye position and no configuration opportunity.

While this is true, there are more uses for a laptop than mere usage on the road.

I use my laptop as a portable office. I go someplace, unpack and start working. I always have a desk and a power plug. I always plug in an external mouse (I hate touchpads). I have no problem carrying around my current 17" laptop.

Netbooks or other small laptops would be terrible for me. I have a lot of problems with the screen size in pixels as it is. I really don't want less screen estate, or a smaller keyboard, for that matter. (Rather, I'd like a numeric keypad added.)

But maybe I am a niche: people strong enough to carry around a large laptop and wanting a portable office more than a train-/plane-computer.

Unless it is the beginning of a disruption... they do badly at the start, and improve. Such as lighter, thinner, lower-wattage screens.

I note that although laptops could have gotten lighter, there have been a tendency to load them up with DVD players and so on. It's as if there is a maximum tolerable weight for laptops, of 2-3 kg, and people will load on features up to that point.

Then there was a reaction against this, of netbooks - lighter, smaller, lower-wattage - but this trend seems to have slowed, and of course, laptop sales still dominate netbook sales. Why? Because people in fact want to do desktop things on a laptop. If they need dual screen on their desktop, they'll need it on their laptop.

(personally, I much prefer the netbook approach)

I saw an article recently about projectors that shine light directly into your eye. Mix that tech with a camera to track the location of your eyes and align the projector and you wouldn't need any monitors. You just stick your phone on a desk and get instant augmented reality.

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