You wouldn't agree that more than a few percent of the kind of people who were already heavy office PC users back in 1985 now use laptops on aeroplanes, in hotel rooms or at conferences or other people's offices? In fact the author was even more specific than that, and suggested that the kind of people who read the business section of the newspaper on the train, or the kind of people who used to fly to Comdex, would have no serious interest in using the time to get some work done on a computer instead. If we need evidence on this, here's a 2013 USA Today story http://www.usatoday.com/story/hotelcheckin/2013/04/30/more-t... reporting on a small decline in the "vast majority" of US business travellers who travel with a laptop.

> Is it your claim that the mere existence of the modern laptop proves regular work outside the home or office is not niche?

I promise you that the market for laptops back around 1989-90, when they started to be a real commercial hit, was not dominated by people who only wanted to shuttle theirs back and forth between home and work, still less by people who were only going to use it at home. The Macintosh Portable was excoriated for its poor battery life, heavy weight and lack of a backlight because so many of the potential users wanted something to use on the road.