Laptops are cheap. Why handhelds? Comment!

The December Issue of PC World magazine contains the article Solid $500 Laptops. The magazine reviews three bargain laptops from major manufacturers. Although the laptops in the article are inexpensive, the average selling price for a laptop in August of this year was $1,100 (a few more times the cost of a single handheld). However, the average cost of laptops has been declining rapidly. In fact, because of low prices, laptops now outsell desktops! PC World notes that prices will continue to drop:

The cheapest notebooks could sink to the $400 range by the end of this year and may even drop as low as $300 by late 2006, according to various computer vendors, chip experts, and PC industry observers. In fact, as we went to press CompUSA was selling a Compaq laptop for $425 after $300 in various rebates.

"It used to be notebooks would sell for close to $600 only as a stunt," says Mark Margevicius, an analyst with Gartner Research. But now some laptops have sold for that price consistently, he says.

So my question for you is: Why buy handhelds for students when you can get a laptop for close to the same price? Please click the orange link below that reads Wednesday, November 02, 2005. Let's outline reasons why handheld computers are appropriate for education, knowing laptops are now on the cheap.

There are hundreds of us who read this blog regularly, so even if you've never left a comment before, let's have as many blog readers as possible join the discussion through commenting! You can even leave comments anonymously. And who knows, perhaps we'll read your comment on a future Soft Reset podcast!