Why This Year's Desktop Refresh Will Be The Most Important Yet

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There are at least a good handful of reasons why this year's desktop refresh, long overdue by traditional standards, will be like none other in the history of the PC industry.

For starters, the world is still trying to recover from the worst economic meltdown of our lifetime. The meltdown forced most enterprises to either cancel or postpone what had already been overdue IT projects and upgrades.

Then there is the awaited resurgence of the Windows platform on the desktop -- a resurgence made necessary by the flop that was known as Windows Vista. If you recall, Windows Vista was long delayed itself and, when it was launched, proved to be such a nightmare for business migration that businesses didn't migrate. Solution providers and PC makers all but demanded that Microsoft continue providing Windows XP for business. To this day, solution providers and their customers are opting to buy PCs and downgrade to Windows XP rather than opt for Windows Vista or even Windows 7.

Think about it: In what other industry has the customer base clamored to downgrade their purchases? The auto industry? Nope. Aerospace? No. Fast food? Don't even go there.

But while Microsoft was licking its wounds and trying to push Windows 7 out to the market -- which it did late last year -- the PC hardware ecosystem never stopped upgrading. Intel and Advanced Micro Devices moved from single-core CPUs to dual-core, tri-core and quad-core PCs. They began providing the most solid foundation yet to support the world's move from 32-bit computing to 64-bit computing. Nvidia and AMD's ATI graphics unit also continued pushing the envelope to provide in low-cost, industry-standard hardware what it once took proprietary components and many thousands of dollars to provide: powerful 3-D and rendering capabilities in lower-cost systems.

The business world itself has also changed. Out: big, thundering PCs that ate who-cares-how-much power, 24x7. In: ultra-energy-efficient desktops that consume 20 watts or less while providing reliability and productivity.

This will also be the first, major desktop upgrade cycle, really, since Apple's resurgence in Mac OS X market share. Why is this such a big deal? The Apple ecosystem itself is transforming the industry: iPhone, iPad, iTunes and, significantly, the App Store. As Microsoft did in the 1980s with developer support and a clear path to profitability with third-party applications, Apple has opened the door to low-overhead software development with its iPhone SDK. That will feed into the forthcoming launch of the iPad tablet, and app development surrounding that. Hundreds of thousands of applications will pour into the market; developers building for it will find themselves moving to the Mac platform for their work. Five years into its market-share resurgence on the desktop, and Apple's just getting warmed up.

And then there's the Linux space. While it's still not ready to eat that much market share out of Microsoft or Apple, in many ways it's just getting started as well. The Ubuntu community, in fact, has taken major leaps forward toward "instant-on" boot-up times. That plays into advances we've seen in the hardware space and will drive Microsoft and Apple to deliver more efficient software as well.

For this month's cover story, we're looking at both the new rules that apply to this desktop refresh cycle as well as the new products and technology. We've had the chance to examine new desktops from Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer, as well as raw components from AMD and Intel. We're looking at how each integrates Windows 7 and we're taking a look at how Apple will continue to compete.

Even though more mobile PCs (notebooks, tablets, netbooks and smartphones) sell into the market than desktops, the desktop is still a bedrock part of the IT chain. That may change between now and the next refresh cycle, as use patterns and business requirements continue to evolve. But our analysis shows that the desktop still brings very specific and tangible value.

The upshot: There are many more than just the traditional reasons for enterprise IT customers to refresh. There are more than just the traditional factors for solution providers to consider. Each PC maker brings a unique approach that provides value, and each makes a compelling case for the entire IT space to move forward and once again begin mapping out upgrades, while throwing away -- once and for all -- the strategy of downgrading PCs.

Here is our look at new and noteworthy PCs, and why each provides compelling reasons for VARs to make the case for aggressive upgrades right now.

Next: Lenovo's ThinkCentre A70z

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