This year's Consumer Electronics show featured a whole new world of laptops, all of them with brand new features that made them almost nothing like tradition.
There were many different features introduced that made laptops more like tablets than ever before: convertibles, detachables, and touch screen laptops made their way in and the traditional laptop with a touch pad began to make its way out, according to an article on CNET discussing the CES.
Convertibles are laptops that have touch screens that swivel. The processor and everything are under the keyboard, and the design of these allows the laptop to be kept cooler.
New convertibles include the HP EliteBook Revolve and other brands.
Detachables are like tablets with keyboard docks that come sold with them. The keyboards virtually turn the tablet into a laptop, but it has a touch screen and can function without the keyboard for even better portability.
All of the processors, etc., are behind the screen. The downfall of these is that the battery life is not terrific and have to be even more power efficient because they have to be kept cool.
The Lenovo ThinkPad Helix, the Samsung ATIV Smart PC, and the HP Envy x2 are some of the most popular detachables on the market.
Of course, there is the regular touch screen laptop as well. These have keybaords and open like regular laptops, but they have touch screens included, forming a sort of bridge between tradition and the tablet.
The Acer Aspire S7 and the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart are two of a long list of touch screen tablets that are on the market already.
The tablet is responsible for all of this. The iPad hit the market and tablet technology was hurled forward at light speed. These standalone touch screen devices are still being made in larger and larger numbers, and they seem to be getting slimmer and capable of doing more as they go.
Newer versions of the iPad are continuously coming out and more companies are creating their own tablets with their own unique features.
Windows 8 Tablets may be the next big thing, as they function on a regular PC technology instead of an application-based method. This brings the PC closer to the tablet and renders the traditional laptop much more outdated.
The question remains, though, if there is still a place in the technology world for the traditional laptop, let alone the desktop computer that has nearly become nonexistent. Even high-end gaming computers may at some point find a way to go to touch screens, but they will still have a need for a computer or control pad of some sort.
It does look as if the future of the laptop with the traditional keyboard may be in jeopardy.