THE personal computer of the future will retain its current shape and place on your desk, even by the year 2000, industry experts say.
The power in them will, however, increase, and if today's trends are anything to go by, users in Hong Kong - who have got used to accessing information in seconds - will be waiting to snap up the new technology.
Niall O'Reilly, industry analyst at Dataquest Asia-Pacific said: 'The desktop for the year 2000 will have a Pentium seven processor running at 400MHz - which is 10 times faster than today's Pentium 100 - with 64MB of RAM, a 10 gigabyte hard drive, writable CD, with advanced video processing and ISDN capabilities.
'The whole market will still be based on the concept of a desktop personal computer.' Close on the heels of Japan and Australia, Hong Kong is one of the most sophisticated markets in the world, he said.
Even though the desktop will not disappear, the portable computer will assume greater importance. It is the fastest growing market in the PC area.
As portable PCs get smaller and more powerful, they become more useful for users on the move.
