It’s clearly the age of mobile technology in which laptops, notebooks and the recent advent of hybrid tablet devices like the iPad, of which 3 million were sold within the first 80 days of its US launch, appear to be ruling the IT roost. With tablets estimated to account for 23% of all US PC sales by 2015, and sales of mobile PCs estimated to account for over 68% of all PCs sold worldwide by 2014, the writing seems on the wall.

Are the days of the desktop, the predecessor of these new fangled devices, literally numbered?

One would have to be a hermit not to notice that everywhere from cafés to airports, to educational institutions, people are using notebooks, or their less sophisticated brethren the netbook. Even the way families communicate has adapted with emerging technology. People tend to spend quality time with each other via Skype and access personal information through cloud desktops when away from home. The reason for a change in the technological milieu, so to speak, is the simple fact that laptops have become more affordable and highly customised, also making them highly attractive to consumers.

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in January, he made it clear that the company’s revenue comes from three product lines: iPods, iPhones and Macs. Adding to this, Jobs said, “Now what’s really interesting about this is that iPods are mobile devices, iPhones are all mobile devices and most of the Macs that we ship now are laptops: they are mobile devices too. Apple is a mobile devices company. That’s what we do.”

The desktop is still unbeatable when it comes to screen size options and performance in terms of speed and storage capacity (which gamers out there will surely attest to). Therefore, it’s unlikely to become obsolete anytime soon. What’s seemingly happening right now is that people are purchasing mobile devices in addition to their existing hardware. However, evolving technology like tablets, with access to a myriad of functional mobile apps at the touch of a screen are definitely the way of the future, and will ultimately gain the lion’s share of the market.

And with phones very capably providing media and web content, this may add another knife in the desktop’s back. Reflecting this is a Synovate study from November 2009. When asked about the importance people attached to their mobile or cell phone, an incredible 70% of Chinese respondents said they “can't live without it” and this figure was also high in Hong Kong (59%) and Taiwan (54%). As Asian consumers are among the central market influencers globally, this may contribute to desktop doom.

So what are the implications for marketers? Synovate's global executive director of media research, Steve Garton, says the importance of the phone in people's lives is clear but it's a little different to other media. “The mobile is not really a media... it is a platform. And as the internet gets more and more accessible via mobile, it's online advertising and content that is delivered. A word of caution though... people feel quite passionately that their phone is more personal than their PC screen."

Even as desktops fade into the background, do they still provide the best marketing medium? Watch this space.