A friend recently sent me a link about a story of someone finally developing laptop that has multiple screens. The Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds provides the 2nd screen that slides out from the cover and primary screen of the laptop. The primary screen is a 17", the secondary is a 10.6".
The author of the article, Michael J. Miller said he was impressed with the laptop but wasn’t sure if he was the type of person that would need a laptop with two screens. He stated that he would understand why people that used CAD programs, engineering employees and development teams could use them. I can tell you though, I am so addicted to working with two monitors now that I carry around a 2nd 17" LCD display with me to work onsite with clients.
It’s for that reason that my boss and I have come up with the idea to have a laptop with at least two screens. Our opinion though is that the additional screens should be the same size.
Our version of the multiple monitor laptop is shown above. We feel that with the technology available it should be possible for these two additional monitors to fold flat onto the main monitor when it’s put away and then unfold as needed. Just take a look at the Macbook Air to see how thin the monitor panel itself can be.
There’s an obvious need and a demand for net books and ultra-light and small laptops. I believe there’s also a market for a serious, multi-monitor laptop for developers that also travel from client-to-client or conference-to-conference.