Microsoft's Surface loss is Dell's gain as their 2-in-1 PC shipments surge 48%

At the launch of their new Latitude 2-in-1 business laptops, Dell released some statistics which confirmed that the day of the stodgy business laptop was coming to an end.

“Commercial PCs are seeing a real renaissance in design, with form-factors like the 2-in-1 that we could only dream about just a few years ago now becoming reality,” said Bob O’Donnell, president and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research.

In a press release, Dell announced that their 2-in-1 PC shipments have surged 48% YoY in Q1 2017, with Dell aiming to build on this with their new Latitude range.

Dell said companies were abandoning tablets in the office and placed more value on the productivity and flexibility offered by 2-in-1 PCs, noting their new lineup of Latitude 2-in-1s was designed to give businesses a “PC first, tablet second” mobile device experience without compromising on design, performance or security.

“A lot of customer feedback factors into the design decisions we make; every detail counts, and for business users it’s the details that matter,” said Kirk Schell, senior vice president, Commercial Client Solutions, Dell. “Some of the design choices that matter to commercial customers are things like optimised displays that reduce power consumption and extend battery life; removable hard drives for data security; IR camera location for video conferences; Wi-Fi antennae placement and use of lightweight carbon fibre materials for durability. We even made sure the trusted Latitude keyboard wasn’t compromised because we were designing a 2-in-1.”

While Dell attributed their great 2-in-1 performance to their design and expertise, the trend is actually more global, with the IDC’s Worldwide 2017 Q1 Personal Computing Device Tracker confirming convertible 2-in-1s are taking off with business users, growing at 46 percent worldwide year-over-year.

The growth is in the face of plunging sales of the iPad, despite numerous moves by Apple to boost sales by pushing the device into the enterprise market, most famously by partnering with IBM for exclusive business apps, and Microsoft’s Surface sales themselves being down 26% in Q1 2017 showing Microsoft’s OEMs have successfully taken up Microsoft’s mantle in modernizing PC computing.

You can read more about Dell’s new range here and you can get the Latitude 7285 here and the Latitude 5289 here.