The laptop may have dethroned the desktop (only to be challenged by the upstart tablet), but in the era of mobile computing one type of desktop, the all-in-one PC, is alive and well. At Intel’s analyst day earlier this month, executives said they expect to see continued growth in all-in-ones. “In the desktop space we’ve also seen a new all-in-one category that for the last couple of years, I don’t think people realize, has growing over 35 percent per year,” said Kirk Skaugen, who heads up Intel’s PC Client Group.
There are many reasons for this resurgence. The space-saving and clutter-free designs have long been attractive to home users. Desktop components continue to get faster and to integrate more features, largely eliminating the need for after-market upgrades. Processors now have both the CPU performance and graphics chops to handle all but the most demanding 3D games. And even entry-level all-in-ones often come with 4GB of memory and at least 500GB of storage.
