What will laptop personal computers look like in 20 years?

Question

Will they be the same basic design as today, like they were 20 years before now, or will there be a quantum change?

Answer 1

Twenty years from now, computers will be wirelessly integrated into our physiology. Everybody will be a cyborg and everything will be connected. Not really, but what the hey.

Answer 2

Clearly they'll be faster, have more memory
and storage. They'll have all kinds of wireless
technology above and beyond what they
have now - so much so that your laptop will
be a practical vehicle for voice over IP
if not real video.

We're doing that now - but televideo isn't
practical over wireless quite yet.

They'll be smaller. The real debate is
whether they'll still have hardware keyboards
and screens or if they will "project" an optical
keyboard onto your desk which you type on.
That would allow it to be smaller than a normal
sized keyboard. Similarly, it could project
its image on a large white surface instead of
an LCD screen.

Personally, I think we're going towards an era
where "screens" become very cheap and start
appearing everywhere (tabletops, hung like
pictures, etc) and then laptops simply "talk" to
the screen wirelessly. A tiny laptop could then
have a 60" screen, etc.

That is, they keyboard/screen will be divorced
from the laptop enabling it to essentially merge
with the concept of the personal data assistant
(PDA).

This device will certainly perform as your phone
(perhaps with video), your media player, your
calandaring/scheduling entry point, your photo
album, etc. It will be your primary entry point
for accessing the web.

It may also become like a "key" for entering
certain buildings. That is, a smart door sends
it a signal, it does some computation involving
encryption/decryption and time stamping, sends
back the result, and the smart door lets you in or not.

THAT technology is basically already here too.
It comes in the form of entry badges, though right
now we have one entry badge for every different
company.

We may soon carry around universal badges which
act as keys to whatever company/house we should
have access to ... or that functionality will get
wrapped into our PDA/Laptops.

Answer 3

I think the physical configuration of a "laptop" is determined by its primary use. If typing is still required, then a keyboard will still be necessary and there are practical physical limitations on that. Presentation also becomes an issue, speech is not as fast a reading in any language I know of so in all probability the information will still be presented visually although it may be projected (laser video projectors are beginning to emerge and show great promise) or as a flexible film (Roll-up screen). It may well be that laptops become a non event; perhaps you will just have a docking station for your cellphone (or whatever it may become) with the cellphone having more processing power than conventional computers today.

At the end of it all I think it is more human nature as a driver than technology; people want their status symbols to be seen, what good is the latest embedded communication device if nobody knows you have it. Consider the iPod; arguably it is about three years behind the curve in terms of functionality, so why do people still buy them? Because they are considered a techno-savvy fashion item, so they need to be seen. They are not going to get smaller because of that. I think it is possible that the same will apply to laptops.

Answer 4

Wow this is hard to say, but i am sure the keyboard will stay the same, maybe fold up into the case and the screen will roll out but i am sure the hard disk drive will be a thing of the past and the USB will even get better and for sure the battery life will be much longer, may even last a week or longer and yes the size should become just a little larger that a Pocket PC, I would like to see a command batter like AAA size rechargeable for Laptops.... That my wish list....

Answer 5

considering the fact that cellphones went from being as large and bulky as a military radio from the 40's....and the personal computer when it emerged was "a fad" and cost around 7,000 us dollars and did not have hardly any software at all.....and now there are pc's and macs everywhere you look and email is available on your cellphone as well as music and camera....I would assume that the laptop design and how we use it will definately change....20 years, probably won't have laptops anymore....we'll all be using our intelligent design "phones" for everything, ala blackberry. 10 years I see a drastic change in size, compatibility, and overall use of laptops, its already changing.....laptops are becoming the "pc of choice"....and because of the increased number of people who own and use laptops as their primary pc, they are already more functional, rugged, lightweight, and powerful. Not to mention the fact that 5 years ago it was hard to find a laptop with a cd burner and now they come standard with dvd burners....and some have even adopted the hd blu-ray burners.

Answer 6

Go back to 1987.

What did laptops look like then?

Osborne lug-able. IBM P70 came out a little later and was probably as state of the art as there was.


My prediction would be that you will be wearing the CPU, or have it in your pocket. 100+ GB flash, or TB crystal storage. It will project an image onto the insides of your glasses, it will be personal assistant, video phone, reference library, connected to the web. input will be either voice, by finger touch (touch thumb to 1st finger to click, thumb to 2nd finger to right click) or by eye tracking. Possibly by thought picked up through the glasses frame.

Cost will be equivalent to $1000.



But any prediction more than 5 years out is wildly inaccurate.

Answer 7

They will have no keyboard because you will talk to them and they will speak to you. They will not have a display because their images will be projected onto your eyeglasses or sunglasses (of course from looking at screens all day your vision will be worn out - that is why you are wearing glasses). Probably their memory will be RFID-powered so that you hold it near them and the data goes in and out.

Or maybe they are even stranger than that.

Answer 8

In 20 years we might have the technology to put computers into our heads and connect all of the organic pathways to the artificial ones.

Answer 9

I imagine they will be the same size as the current notebooks, but skinnier. Im sure we are going to find a way to make PC notebooks to be less than 1/2" in height (when closed). I also see them as replacing the desktop.

Answer 10

God, who knows? IBM just came out with the p.c. 26 years ago. It had two floppy drives, a monochromatic screen, and 64K memory. I gave up trying to predict the direction of technology that far in advance.