Notebook sales exceeded desktop sales (in dollars) for the first time. Also, unit sales of LCD displays have overtaken CRTs.

Laptop manufacturers are starting to offer portable GPU's that can play games and run high end multimedia. A lot of the CBT software and electronic conferencing technology found in the business office these days requires about as much video processing as a video game. Thus at one time laptops didi not appeal to gamers or people looking for entertainment. Now the better hardware found in current generation laptops have opened up access to new markets once owned by the desktop computer.

That and the fact that new fab processes on the laptop LCD displays themselves have lowered costs and better image quality. So an increase capability to keep up with demand is good seeing that in the past LCD display manufactering tended to lag behind demand. It seems that LCD's are still tremendously expensive and time consuming to make compared to other next generation displays such as the promising organic light emitting diode.

1) Notebooks are more fashionable than desktops.

2) You can use a notebook with a normal desk, then put away the notebook and have your desk back.

3) LCD monitors take up lots less space, and look nifty.

I was quite tempted to go the laptop route for my latest purchase, but I had already invested in a nice 19" Trinitron monitor which not even Lapzilla can touch.

Jon is right, but of course desktops aren't going away, at least where computer decisions are made by users who actually have to pay for the hardware.

I have three hard drives totalling more than 110 GB on what these days qualifies as a "legacy" system. Even with PC Card HDD modules, you can't run three hard drives all at the same time in a laptop, and you can't even keep the second one permanently if your internal modem or network card craps out, because the replacement is going to be a PC Card.

When my wife's laptop's mobo crapped out, all we could do was have a computer shop tech take the drive out so we could transfer essential files onto my desktop PC. Theoretically, I could simply replace a fried mobo if it happened on my system.

Laptops are handy when you need a portable machine -- but myself, I still prefer desktops.