But this mobility comes at a cost - tablets tend towards limited functionality and many users still crave the full features of a notebook, along with the portability and always-on functionality of a tablet. This gives us a clear glimpse into the future of notebook development - a merger between the technology of the tablet and the features of a PC - delivering thinner, faster, more rugged notebooks incorporating the benefits of SSD.
The move towards the adoption of SSD, while slow to start with, has been driven by a number of factors and is set to accelerate in 2012. In the past SSDs have been seen as overly pricey for the notebook market, but as with any technology, as it matures and demand grows, prices begin to fall and the technology becomes more widely affordable.
While according to the technology curve SSDs will eventually become the norm, this transition has been hastened by natural global events, specifically the flooding in Thailand. Two of the largest Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) of hard disk drives (HDD) are based in Thailand and the intense rain has caused their facilities to flood. While the rain has ceased, water damage caused by water running from the highlands to the lowlands, where the factories are, has hampered the fast recovery and ramp up of production in clean rooms necessary to build traditional platter-based hard drives.
The result of this is a worldwide shortage of hard drives, as supply is unable to keep up with demand, the impact of which is likely to be felt long into 2012. SSDs aren't widely utilised in all mobile platforms and many of the suppliers have not been affected by the flooding, as their factories are located elsewhere. As a result, notebooks ordered with a normal HDD will be subject to possible shipping delays and possibly swapping out on specs due to availability, whereas notebooks with SSDs will ship immediately, incentivising individuals to make the move to solid state and, in turn, experiencing the increased performance of this technology.
This increased demand for SSD goes hand-in-hand with the increasing trend towards greater mobility, thinner, lighter devices with faster boot times and more power. We can expect to see computer design, specifically with regard to notebooks, moving towards thin, lightweight and highly portable devices that boot up in seconds, thanks to SSDs. We can also expect to see Intel's Ivy Bridge, with abundant processing power early this year. There have also been rumours of massive advances in operating system software from Microsoft with Windows 8, which we hope to see in the latter part of 2012.
Following an ongoing trend of the past few years, the notebook of the future is set to deliver better specs for less money, with previously premium technology such as the SSD now becoming available to the mass market. RAM modules are increasing in size and in the next year we can expect 4GB and 8GB memory modules to become standard. Notebooks are also set to become increasingly cost-effective and production efficient, driving down the cost for the consumer and making more computing power available per rand than ever before.
The year 2011 has been the year of the tablet, which has driven increased popularity for SSD, as well as greater development of miniaturised processors that deliver the same performance levels as their full-sized counterparts. However, tablets don't offer full functionality, for arguably a hefty price. As a result, in 2012 we will see the emergence of small, thin form factor notebooks that deliver tabletesque convenience with full notebook features.
The future of the notebook is not only thinner, lighter and more power efficient than ever, the future is solid in the form of solid state drives that improve boot up, running and read/write speeds and enhance the portability and ruggedness of any mobile device.
