The little elves are busy packing Santa’s sleigh with presents for delivery on Christmas day and computer tablets feature prominently in their list of gifts, according to computer retailers.
The computer as we have known it until today will finish as devices become personalised
Touch-screen, lightweight tablets are the fad this Christmas with shops reporting well above average sales of these gadgets.
Alexiei Dingli, a university lecturer in human-computer interaction, said the sales were a reflection of the global trend that sees computers transform into personalised electronic devices.
He said the shift echoes that seen in telephony, where fixed line devices which were used by everybody at home gave way to individual mobile phones.
“On Apple’s ipad it is not even possible to have more than one profile because it is meant to be a personal device belonging to one individual,” Dr Dingli said.
He believes the trend towards personal devices will continue next year and tablets will be joined by ultra laptops, which are smaller, lighter and more powerful versions of the traditional laptop.
“The computer as we have known it until today will finish as devices become personalised,” Dr Dingli said.
His reflections are backed up by hard evidence.
Adrian Xuereb, a purchasing assistant at popular computer retailer Scan, said laptop sales have long surpassed desktop computer sales.
“From all computers sold in a year, roughly 80 per cent are laptops and with tablets now having their own docking stations and plug in keyboards they are expected to take up a significant market share in contrast to desktop computers,” he said.
The move towards personalised computer devices was also evident in “the above average” sales of iPads and other cheaper tablets this December, Mr Xuereb said.
Tablet sales only came in second to gaming consoles such as Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 that have long been hot favourites as Christmas presents.
Luke Tabone, a director at FGL Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Forestals group that runs various retail outlets, reported similar trends.
Tablet sales worldwide have taken off in the past two years with Apple alone reporting the sale of 15 million iPads since the device was launched in January 2010.
Mr Tabone said the iPad has become the popular term for tablets in much the same way as people refer to water heaters as Geyser – a brand name. But what makes the tablet technology succeed, according to Dr Dingli, is the ability to share resources and store personal information over the internet, referred to as cloud computing.
“Cloud computing, which has made possible the development of technology such as the voice recognition tool Siri used in the iPhone 4s, has opened up vast possibilities for storing data and service provision that allows users to go beyond the hardware limitations of their devices.”