Why have a cell phone, if you have a desk phone? Why have a blackberry if your laptop has email?

The technology is cheap and useful, for some, not all. Almost like every other part of the technology spectrum.

The truth is MOST people do not NEED a laptop. They buy them because they are cheap, and they are 'cooler' than a desktop. If it was about power and nothing else, the desktop would always win, better yet, a server, or a mainframe for that matter.

Honestly, it is a big world, let people choose what they like, and use it. The market will decide.

I fit the definition of road warrior. I travel 3-4 weeks every month.

I now carry a netbook. When I want more power, I access a desktop on rdp in my office.

My netbook it fast, maxxed out on RAM, running windows 7 and most improtantly to a road warrior, it is super light, about 2 lbs., and the battery exceeds 9 hours consistently.

The real truth is most road warriors want light and fast, and rarely need power.

Additionally, most of my client now insist that I use their hardware (laptops desktops etc) for security reasons (more and more common).

With RDP, and access to my email/online and portable storage, as well as my productivity tools, I can handle most tasks. When I need horsepower, I hit a machine with an AMD processor and running vista business 64 bit and 8GB of ram, or a windows 2003 server.

For all else, I take the road with my lighter backpack.

MHO.