The last desktop I bought was an 800MHz Power Mac G4. The last 5 computers I have purchased have been notebooks, mostly on the small side. My next computer is going to be a netbook, even if just for fun.
I'm in a different boat, my last 3 machines have been notebooks and I'm actually going back to a desktop.
Then again, my needs (3D modelling + animation) are a little different than most and the subsurfacing can be intensive on a notebook (especially when you want framerates to be as close to realtime so that you can judge timing effectively)
There's also other reasons why it's useful, More RAM, more raw CPU power - but obviously I'm on the other end of the scale... the people who need that extra oomph
The news ultimately behind this is that Moore's law for CPU speeds has broken down. Since the real increase in performance always come from increased speed, the newest PCs are no longer that much better than older PCs. This is something of a disaster for the traditional PC which has been oriented towards selling the best technology at a $500 or $1000 dollar price range.
For this reason, we every reason to think that $400 or $200 machines will catch up to $1000 machines and thus total industry dollar sales are going to plummet.
Well, its better to be in software than hardware today, it seems.
I think the thing compounding the problem is that there has never been a well priced, small laptop with a decent battery life. I mean I can pay $450 for a Aspire One with 6 hours battery life, whilst before I could pay $800 for a 'cheap' laptop (like the dell latitudes) that had 3 hour battery life and was the bastard child of a real laptop. My laptop cost around $1100 dollars, yet it was like more than 4 times more powerful than the latitudes (thank god they got discontinued).
I would pay $400 for a netbook, most of which aren't that bad. 1.6 ghz processor, which some have the intel 945gm in, which in my 3.2ghz laptop can push 1080p, so something like an aspire one with a 945gm could easily push 720p to an external screen, which means it can essentially do everything except like post 2007 high-end games. However when you think about it, what moron is going to try and play like Far Cry 2 on a 9 inch screen?
The last desktop I bought was an 800MHz Power Mac G4. The last 5 computers I have purchased have been notebooks, mostly on the small side. My next computer is going to be a netbook, even if just for fun.