14 DAY TRIAL // Among the large masses of people around the world, a relatively small percentage actually know enough about the subtle and not so subtle differences between desktop and laptop PC components.
Starting 2013, this might change for one particular type of computer components: hard disk drive units (HDDs).
Currently, HDDs with the 3.5-inch form factor are what desktops get, while notebooks have 2.5-inch versions.
From next year onwards though, the latter could actually become a common sight in desktops too.
This may or may not be partially owed to solid state drives.
Because of their growing popularity, and the fact that almost all of them come in the 2.5-inch package, PC cases usually have one or more 2.5-inch bays by default now.
Needless to say, putting a small HDD instead of an SSD is easy as pie.
Meanwhile, all-in-one personal computers have been amassing more customers too, and they use certain laptop-type parts by default.
To allow some perspective, 4% of the HDDs used in AiO systems will be compact ones in 2013, and the share will grow to 18% by 2016.
It isn't a massive leap by any means, but still considerable given the disadvantages of 2.5-inch HDDs.
For one, they are more expensive. The difference in price may narrow down once supplies become more balanced, but still.
The other downside is that they are slower (usually 5,400 RPM instead of 7,200 RPM), and this only makes the price downside even more of a thorn. Finally, the lower maximum capacity is a drawback as well, but they still reach 1 TB, so it's not a big handicap.
All in all, the mobile hard drive market probably won't be called that in a few years, since it will no longer be an exclusively “mobile” segment. In the meantime, laptops could start using 1.8-inch storage units more often, so 2.5-inch ones might have to indulge in some worry of their own.