Designing the Future: Avant-Garde Notebooks

Computers -- especially laptops and notebooks -- don't need to be dull, drab, and dreary. Designer Yves Béhar offers an alternative approach to laptop design.

"I can't take it anymore!" writes an anonymous poster. "I'm ready to pull the trigger!" Is this an entry in an online discussion forum for murderous deviants? No. It's a comment made by a participant in an Internet gathering of passionate notebook users. And the fervor of the remark provides an intimate glimpse into the rapidly evolving world of personal computing.

Once considered just a business tool, the notebook computer has become an extension of a user's and owner's persona. From excitedly tracking orders and online dating to social networking and sending party invitations, the computer is now an indispensable element of daily life -- and a signifier of how we perceive ourselves and the work we do. Notebook computers are quickly becoming the de rigueur computing platform, and that brings a golden opportunity to more finely segment the market through designs that consumers can truly bond with.

Consider this: Mobile computers now make up 35% of all PCs sold in U.S. retail stores, according to NPD Techworld. That's up from 29% in 2002 and 23% in 2001. According to Gartner Dataquest, that growth placed some 35 million notebooks in the hands of users worldwide in 2003. And that figure is expected to rise to between 43 million and 46 million units worldwide in 2004, according to Taipei-based Topology Research Institute.

While these figures are spellbinding, the avant garde is underserved. Trendsetters and early adopters, the technology elite who set the tone for the marketplace, demand far more selection, a need that's evident from any visit to popular computer forums.

If switching to a Macintosh were an option, users would have a sum total of seven very cool notebooks to choose from: four from Apple Computer and three from Sony. Beyond those choices, the world quickly turns black and boxy. Sure, Acer offers a Ferrari co-branded notebook, but as reviewers have pointed out, it's not particularly Ferrari-like in performance.

That disconnect precisely proves the point noted San Francisco-based designer Yves Béhar likes to make, "[Technology companies] create products that don't connect emotionally with the consumer," he says. That gap is the result of an overwhelming tendency to focus on shipping boxes, not building consumer brands.

Yet as computing matures, emotional brand building will become a necessity. Already, Intel has announced that it will no longer brand microprocessors based on clock speed, choosing instead to promote their warm-and-fuzzy side.

But lifestyle marketing will require a major change in computer maker attitudes.

Take design leader Sony, for example. Despite endless badgering by the computer press, Sony has never responded to a call for a larger right shift key on its notebook keyboards. Ignored by mass-market manufactures, elite users are increasingly turning to notebooks designed for video game enthusiasts by the likes of Alienware and VoodooPC. Such laptops and PCs attract forward-thinking computer users with their distinctive design and bleeding-edge technology.

The Toshiba Red Transformer designed by Yves Béhar changes from a regular notebook into a media station.

Not that box makers aren't trying. Dell recently introduced a notebook designed for gamers, the Inspiron XPS. But the XPS' packaging is Dell-dull, which misses its fun-mindset target by a mile.

Béhar's new exhibit at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art includes a notebook prototype designed for Toshiba. Decked in bright red lacquer, the Toshiba Red Transformer is a miracle of folding design that says, "Forget the computer, just give me the media," as Béhar puts it. Unfortunately, the Transformer is just a design exercise for now.

While some people might not feel comfortable plunking down a red computer on the conference room table of, say, a Wall Street investment firm, the importance of Béhar's message is never lost. If you want to see the instant bond that consumers form with outstanding products, just ask any woman who owns a Louis Vuitton Murakami bag.

As notebooks capture an ever-growing share of the 153 million computers sold in 2003, as estimated by IDC, the clamor for exclusivity will rise commensurately. Here's one trendsetter eager to pull the trigger on a Red Transformer.

Michael Tchong is founder of Trendscape.