Laptops could soon become like mobile phones. Consumers will lease stripped-down laptops for less than $10 per month, get regular software updates at no additional cost, and replace them with new laptops at the end of their contract period.

Samsung and Acer are due to launch these stripped-down laptops soon. They will run Google's Chrome operating system, which means they need much less data-processing power. The processing takes place remotely (rather than on expensive hard drives and microprocessors) so they are far cheaper to produce.

On the plus side, there is no investment required in a depreciating asset and boot-up times far faster. But running everything remotely will be of concern for some business users. And if you're not within a wi-fi hotspot or an area with reasonable mobile phone coverage, it simply won't work. Which could well make business users ignore it completely. Or will it?