Normal service is resumed as Windows 7's growth once again.....

+1. to Boozad

Boozad said:

jimbo45 said:

The number of purely deskbound people sitting in those 1960's style of "tiny cubes" in an office is definitely rapidly diminishing

Where's the evidence for this? In the company I work for I can guarantee there are thousands of people working in that exact environment, and any other Aerospace or automotive company. And call centers, and distribution companies, and God knows how many other businesses. None of them need a mobile device as they're all still deskbound, they're not going to be sitting in a windy, wet field with a Surface Pro.

Because most u.s.a. and u.k... for that matter jobs are being outsourced so these cubicles are not there anymore

No idea what you mean. There were over 600,00 call centre workers in the UK last I heard. A large number considering the size of the population.

Work that has been outsourced to India etc is also done on proper machines as far as I can tell.

I think Jimbo is bellowing about a small proportion of workers , who want something portable in the field. They already have a variety of ultrabooks and ipad type things, so what is new?

I'm sure 600.00 is a typo,
But as of 2012 u.k. was at 63.6 million so even 600K isn't that many,
The u.s. 2014 was 318.3 million

jimbo45 said:

...the Surface pro 3 with the docking station can be used PERFECTLY as a "Classical computer" and plugged in to ENORMOUS monitors if you want to -- and it's so much lighter and more portable than typical laptops. Out in the field you can also use it as a standard laptop - although it really is easier with the On screen keyboard for submitting small reports - so it works in BOTH modes if you want...

That simply is not true and if you seriously think it is, you are woefully deluded. There is no way the Surface Pro 3 can drive large, multiple monitors with any kind of usable resolution; it simply doesn't have a powerful enough GPU. When the specs were announced for the SP3, I compared them to my notebooks and it fell woefully short, especially compared to my newest one, and there is no way my notebook could ever compete with my desktop. The keyboards, both that flimsy film job that doubles as a cover and the one onscreen, don't even come close in usability and durability compared to the keyboards on my two notebooks.

The only advantage the SP3 has over laptop and desktop computers is portability and even that is trumped by the increased portability of less powerful cell phones and their smaller screens. When compared to other tablets with similar screen sizes, it is destroyed by its higher cost and/or lack of apps.

Boozad said:

jimbo45 said:

The number of purely deskbound people sitting in those 1960's style of "tiny cubes" in an office is definitely rapidly diminishing

Where's the evidence for this? In the company I work for I can guarantee there are thousands of people working in that exact environment, and any other Aerospace or automotive company. And call centers, and distribution companies, and God knows how many other businesses. None of them need a mobile device as they're all still deskbound, they're not going to be sitting in a windy, wet field with a Surface Pro.

ThrashZone said:

Because most u.s.a. and u.k... for that matter jobs are being outsourced so these cubicles are not there anymore

From what I've seen, I doubt it. Many U.S. companies who had outsourced their call centers are bringing them back to the U.S.A. because the poor quality service customers were receiving was driving those customers away. Carbonite is one company that comes to mind that has done so recently (in the past year or two). Customer service and tech help aren't the only occupations that utilizes cubical farms.

Not a typo.

That is quite a large proportion of the working population.

Here is an artcle - a couple of years ago, but I have no reason to believe the numbers have gone down.

More people have worked in call centres than ever worked in the mining industry

I heard the 600,000 figure maybe four or five years ago, it has gone up since:

Over one million people are employed in contact centres, according to analysis firm ContactBabel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12691704

ThrashZone said:

I'm sure 600.00 is a typo,
But as of 2012 u.k. was at 63.6 million so even 600K isn't that many,
The u.s. 2014 was 318.3 million

IMO, considering how many industries supposedly exist in our modern economy, 1% - 1.6% is a large amount of the entire population.
Also, remember that the working population is significantly less than 100% of the entire population.

It is about 3.5-4.0% of the working population.

Can't think of any other job with that percentage.

That is just call centres. Plenty of other back rooms using real pcs as well.