[NBJack]

There is certainly a trend in processors as well as GPUs to push the hardware further by pumping more power into it. This (almost) always plays into the various workstation-grade laptops out there, which I suspect many won't unlock their full potential without a beefy power source.

Beyond gaming, the most interesting use cases I have seen and heard are CAD work/displays of highly complex models, creating heavy duty multimedia presentations, game development, and just about anyone in a country that either needs to do a lot of travel or does not have ready access to a high bandwidth connection. I don't know how prevalent those cases are, but they did surprise me a little.

[gumby]

The CAD case was my default guess, though I've seen from my ME colleagues that when you're designing something very complex you absolutely need the oomph of a real workstation class machine. I guess there could be a large "middle" of quite complex but not extremely so.

But how many people need that? I was shocked to see another colleague doing CFD on his ipad.