The following are not particularly earth-shaking insights.
My employer defaults to issuing new employees laptop computers. It’s actually hard to get a desktop out of IT.
I went to a meeting with bunch of researchers and grad students. Everyone brought their laptops. There was a brief moment where we considered moving to a desktop for a demo, since the machine had a larger screen. The notion was quickly squashed.
At home, I have an old Mac G4 which I haven’t turned on in months. There’s also a Linux box, which I only ssh into. I never sit at its console. I have a personal MacBook which I take everywhere. Even to work where company policy actually prohibits me from using it. (I commute with a long bus ride.)
iPhones, Palm Pres, Blackberrys and their ilk are essentially consumer PARCTABs liberated from the office. And with an order of magnitude more processing power and bandwidth. (That’s a gut guess, don’t hold me to it.)
For many people, the concept of a computer as something you “go to” to get anything done is non-sensical. Computing always goes with you.