Notebooks Are About To Get Better

If your small or midsize company is about to buy a bunch of new notebook computers, you might want to hold off a bit. According to InformationWeek, next year should bring an noticable increase in technology innovation leading to better, cheaper, faster, more-useful laptops.David DeJean at InformationWeek has identified 7 key trends that will likely lead to better laptops in 2008. No matter what kind of machines your company is looking for, they're likely to be better in 2008.

Big Notebooks Are Getting Bigger: With screen sizes up to 20-inches. desktop replacement laptops will increasingly match the peformance and features of the machines they replace.

Wide Screens Rule: As the world moves to HD aspect ratios of 1.78:1 instead of the squarish, old-school 4:3, notebook screens are headed in the same direction.

Small Is Beautiful: Look for lots of new ultra-mobile PCs with screens as small as 5 or 6 inches.

Go Wireless Young Man: Look for 802.11n, Bluetooth and WAN technologies like EV-DO and Edge.

Going Green: Lower power processors and better management will extend battery life.

Solid-State Storage: Hard disks are so five minutes ago. Unless you get a really big 250GB one.

Macintosh and Linux Crash The Party: Macintosh laptops are expected to account for more than 1 of every seven US notebooks next year, and mainstream vendors are now selling laptops loaded with Linux.

When you're buying multiple machines for your company, it pays to think ahead. 2008 isn't that far off.