Desktop PCs, once installed, remain motionless on a desk and are virtually immune to physical damage. About the worst that can happen is for coffee to be spilled on the keyboard, or possibly the computer being jolted during a move from one office to another. But as more businesses adopt mobile workforce strategies, and as service organizations scramble to put mobile computers in the field in a race to maximize customer satisfaction levels, the vulnerability of the laptop becomes a major problem.

Further, the problem will only increase as the number of laptops grows. IDC, a Framingham, Mass., market research firm, shows an inflection point in the first quarter of 1999 where the percentage of laptops to total PCs started to increase. IDC reports that in the third quarter of 1999, laptops constituted 18.5 percent of total PC systems with 5,068,820 units counted.