The financial advisory firm Edward Jones is giving its trainees Toshiba Corp. tablet PCs to enter clients' financial information during home visits.
The tiny computer may get another huge marketing boost this month when Apple, whose iBook injected fashion into the utilitarian-looking laptop market in the late 1990s, holds its Macworld Conference and Expo. Analysts are buzzing that Chief Executive Steve Jobs will introduce his own version of a tablet computer or a mini-notebook at the show.
Laptops could get so small that they become something else. Japan, for example, had its own laptop craze several years ago. But the country is already bypassing the traditional computer as a hub for digital life.
For the last five quarters, computer sales overall have slumped as Japanese consumers have turned to souped-up phones and other devices that plug directly into printers and TVs.
But for now, laptops and U.S. consumers are in the honeymoon stage.
Stacy Libby of Campbell, Calif., considers her laptop a TV-watching companion. The public relations and marketing executive writes a blog about a particular breed of multi-tasker: mothers who like to watch intellectually undemanding television shows while working on their computers.
Good laptop TV: "Oprah," "Ellen," "Ugly Betty" or any reality show. Bad laptop TV: "Lost," "Boston Legal" and "24."
To get her attention, Libby's 3-year-old daughter, Alexa, used to slam down her mom's laptop. But she recently got one of her own: A pink and purple Barbie toy laptop. Now the two of them sit side by side and work.
michelle.quinn@latimes.com
