Consumers know the pattern: over time, technology gets cheaper. Laptops and desktops are not selling well because, at the same time there have been no huge lea

Consumers know the pattern: over time, technology gets cheaper. Laptops and desktops are not selling well because, at the same time there have been no huge leaps in actually useful technology, manufacturers are trying to upsell us toward fancier machines that don't actually help us do anything. At this point, a regular laptop should cost as much as a cell phone and be about as efficient. Instead, we're getting $1400 "ultra-books" that aren't so ultra that anyone actually needs one.