Choosing the Right Laptop for Small & Medium Sized Business Sponsored by
Contents The SMB Market... 2 The Laptop s Evolution... 3 Picking the Right Laptops for SMB... 4 The Small Business Sweet Spot... 7 Sponsored by Choosing the Right Laptop for Small & Medium Sized Business Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have many of the same technology needs as enterprises, but don t have the same budgets to spend on IT as are available to large businesses. However, understanding which laptop technologies and hardware components are required for SMBs and eliminating those that are purely enterprisefocused can result in considerable savings, with no corresponding decrease in functionality or usefulness for users. In other words, by examining the laptop needs of your business and identifying the enterprise components that can be removed from the equation, you can arrive at a sweet spot of value and utility that can meet your budget goals. The SMB Market Small businesses are diverse and not so easily defined. The U.S. Small Business Administration provides different legal definitions, according to industry and revenue ranges. Microsoft has long provided a helpful definition that is perhaps more relevant to this discussion: A small business is a business with 50 or fewer PCs and no formal IT staff. However, there s significant overlap between this type of business and so-called midsized businesses, which Microsoft defines as those businesses with 25 to 500 PCs and some dedicated IT staff. Understanding how SMBs differ from other companies is key to understanding the differences in their technology needs and more specifically their laptop needs. Small businesses usually have an unmanaged infrastructure in that they don t typically take advantage of on-premises management technologies such as Microsoft Active Directory or cloud-based PC management solutions. There are many reasons for this expediency, complexity, and cost, for example but the absence of dedicated IT staff and an on-site server infrastructure are key differentiators between small businesses and other business types. 2
Even though SMBs typically purchase fewer PCs than large companies, their IT requirements are still an important part of many software and PC vendors customer base. For example, at the Financial Analyst Meeting in September 2013, Microsoft noted that 6 percent of its customer base consists of small and midsized businesses. This figure doesn t account for the small business customers that are included in the consumers and devices market segment or the OEM/PC maker market segment, which account for 20 percent and 19 percent of Microsoft s customer base, respectively. While Microsoft didn t split out small businesses from midsized businesses for analysts in 2013, the firm had previously communicated that small businesses were a much bigger market volume-wise than midsized businesses. In addition, Microsoft noted that the small business market was growing much more quickly than the midsized business market. Microsoft is a key supplier of operating systems, software, and services for businesses of all sizes, but it s not the only notable firm servicing small businesses. PC makers and the analysts that cover these markets can also offer some insight into the small businesses that purchase their products. According to the market researchers at Gartner and IDC, while the overall PC market is expected to decline a bit (by less than 10 percent) in calendar year 2013, hardware makers are seeing an uptick in business PC sales and in sales to certain key markets, including the United States. HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba all experienced year-over-year-growth in PC sales in Q3 2013 (the most recent quarter) in the United States and abroad. Only consumer-focused PC makers, Gartner reported, experienced declines in Q3 2013. And even with an estimated 10 percent decline this year, PC makers will sell well north of 300 million units worldwide. The Laptop s Evolution Although you re likely familiar with the laptop form factor, it s worth briefly discussing how this portable computer type has evolved over the years and how it compares to other mobile devices such as tablets and hybrid PCs. A laptop is a clamshell-design portable computer with a display on the top shell. On the bottom shell, you ll find a keyboard, pointing device, and the internal components of the system (e.g., microprocessor and supporting chipset, motherboard, RAM, storage, external ports). This basic form factor has pushed forward largely unchanged since the very first laptops appeared in the early 1980s, although improvements in all the components have resulted in ever more powerful and portable devices. Various classes of laptops have appeared during this time, too, including large desktop replacements, tiny subnotebooks, inexpensive netbooks, thin and light Ultrabooks, and laptops with multi-touch screens. Even a variety of 3
hybrid types were introduced, such as convertible and transforming laptops. In some recent designs, the device s componentry is located under the display, which is removable from the laptop base so that the device can be used as a standalone tablet as well. This is often referred to as a 2-in-1 design. Regardless of the specific design, laptops are real PCs in that they run a modern and fullfeatured version of Windows and can run Windows desktop applications. They re literally portable versions of the traditional desktop PCs and share many internal components with these desktop-based cousins. They run the same software, connect to the same services, and can be used interchangeably. Picking the Right Laptops for SMB As might be expected of a mature product offering, PC makers target different markets enterprises, government organizations, educational institutions, SMBs, consumers, and others with different products that address their needs. For example, enterprises, government organizations, and educational institutions typically have stringent security and management requirements that are unique to their markets. Consumers, who are moving en masse to simpler personal computing devices such as tablets and smartphones, are more value conscious and often prefer trendier, more attractive laptops. The needs of SMBs represent an interesting middle ground. These firms typically don t have the same stringent security and management requirements found in enterprises. They re largely comprised of employees who have more individualized expectations and who value good design over corporate utility. From a purchasing perspective, SMBs again sit in a nebulous middle ground between enterprises and consumers. The smallest of small businesses often purchase new laptops through retail outlets, as would an individual. The SMBs that take advantage of resellers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are unable to command the volume discounts afforded to larger enterprises. While many modern SMBs have embraced the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement, those that do acquire laptops for their employees will generally be better served by purchasing them from business-oriented hardware makers that differentiate between small businesses and larger entities. These firms provide laptops that are based on enterprise designs and not consumer offerings. That is, the best SMB laptops provide the same quality as enterprise-class laptops while providing a better value through the elimination of unnecessary hardware technologies and componentry. This distinction is important because the reverse is less than ideal. Consumer-class laptops, while attractive and stylish, aren t designed to withstand the rigors of regular use in the 4
business world. Most consumer laptops are left at home, in dorm rooms, or other similar locations, and travel through a relatively limited area. Business-class laptops, meanwhile, are built for travel and are structurally more attuned to such use. And thanks to steady improvements in build quality and materials, they don t need to resemble the dowdy standard-issue laptops of a decade ago. In examining enterprise laptops and how they might be adapted to better suit small businesses by the removal of non-essential technologies, a number of obvious candidates emerge. The major candidates for removal are: Intel Active Management Technology. Modern Intel chipsets include Intel Active Management Technology, which helps centralized management solutions identify and manage laptops, whether they re local to the corporate network or located remotely. Small businesses that are loosely managed through cloud-based management services or not centrally managed at all don t need Intel Active Management Technology in their laptops. Biometric hardware. Enterprise-class laptops often include smart cards, fingerprint readers, or other security features that integrate with back-end infrastructure management solutions to help ensure the identity of users. As with Intel Active Management Technology, these biometric devices are overkill for the typical small business. In addition to these two key technologies, SMB laptops are often different from their more expensive enterprise cousins in other ways. Some typical examples include: Pointing device. Small business laptops typically include a lower-cost touchpad rather than a nubbin -type pointer, which sits between the keys. The lack of precision of such a device is typically overcome by the addition of a computer mouse. Keyboard. While many enterprise- and consumer-class laptops include backlit keyboards, this feature is sometimes omitted in SMB offerings. Many small business laptops feature a full-sized keyboard instead of a slim-profile island-style keyboard. This can result in laptops that are slightly thicker and heavier. Battery. Most enterprises still purchase laptops with removable batteries, while many consumers and small businesses have moved to devices that feature inaccessible batteries that can t be removed by the end user. These laptops are typically thinner and lighter than those with removable batteries are they re less costly yet still yield very good battery life for business users. 5
Cosmetic. Many small businesses eschew chrome hinges and other costly but attractive laptop hardware, using less-expensive cosmetic exterior parts instead. Display. While the consumer market is moving toward Full HD (1080p, or 1920 1080) and even higher resolution displays, many small business devices feature lower resolution screens, typically 1366 768. These screens are less expensive, but thanks to the display scaling and ClearType functionality in Windows 8.1, are often still quite desirable. Multi-touch. Although Microsoft is pushing multi-touch capabilities (even on traditional form-factored PCs), the displays that support this functionality are still more expensive than non-touch displays. As a result, the least expensive SMB devices typically don t feature multi-touch screens. This is true in the consumer and enterprise markets as well. Transforming or 2-in-1 form factor. Intel, Microsoft, and many PC makers feel that hybrid PCs such as those that can transform between tablet and clamshell form factors or 2-in-1 designs in which the screen can be detached and used as a standalone tablet are the future. But these designs, which are often implemented in tandem with multi-touch capabilities, are currently much more expensive than traditional laptop designs. As a result, many small business laptops still utilize the traditional design. It s important to note, however, that SMB laptops aren t simply enterprise machines with features removed. These laptops retain the basic advantages of their more expensive counterparts, including the same build quality and durability. And they re often able to take advantage of a shared set of accessories (e.g., docking stations, port replicators, power adapters) with similar enterprise laptops parts that will be available for many years thanks to the support lifecycle that PC makers provide to their larger customers. One other trend is worth reviewing. In recent years, consumers and businesses alike have been spacing their PC purchases over longer intervals. This change isn t due just to the recent surge in tablet and smartphone sales. There are many other reasons for this change, including: PCs performance in both speed and battery life have improved considerably over the last few years. The past three Windows versions have been architected to require less powerful hardware. Windows now offers a much longer support lifecycle than it did just a few years ago. Regardless of the reason, SMBs, like any other laptop customer, might wish to extend their laptop purchases over a longer period of time. 6
For these customers, the advice changes somewhat. They should consider higher-end laptops built for durability that feature multi-touch displays or transforming 2-in-1 form factors. Such hybrid designs are better positioned for the future and are more in line with the expectations of users, who have become accustomed to this functionality through other types of devices. The Small Business Sweet Spot SMBs are in an interesting position when it comes buying laptops. They re able to benefit from the investments hardware makers have made in creating manageable, durable, and reliable enterprise-class laptops for their largest customers but can likewise benefit from the cost savings of laptops that don t include unnecessary technologies and components. This is the so-called sweet spot, a value proposition that, in many ways, is unique to SMBs that straddle the line between the unmanaged and style-conscious consumer world and the heavily network-managed corporate world. 7