Laptops: Do you need a laptop?

For years, desktop computers were under siege from the laptop market. But now the usurper has a target on its back. Emmet Ryan reports.

If you want to write a document, listen to music, flick through photos, send email, and engage in multiple chats all at once, it is far smoother and cheaper to do so on a desktop.

Desktop computing has been on a steady decline for years, but 2013 marked a watershed for the laptop business. Finally the original mobile computing device was feel the big pinch. Having survived the netbook era laptops are facing a sterner foe in the form of tablets. Hybrid tablets and laptops also pose a threat and, while it may seem early to say, the extinction of the device is a real possibility.

**Revenge of ...