. By the second half of 2008 laptop or notebook PC shipments exceeded those of desktop computers??. This astonishing leap to dominance within the computer market reflects the reduction in price and improvements in technology of laptop computers, but also changes in ways of working.
A growing phenomenon in the world of work is the shift towards home-working. About 8% of the workforce are now teleworkers (working from different locations, using the home as a base or working from home full-time). The HSE??s (Health and Safety Executive) 2006 Horizon Scanning paper reports that by 2015, 70-80% of workers could be, at least partially, working away from the office.?? Home office workers are made up of several different groups: self-employed and freelance workers; employees who have the freedom to work from home some or all of the time and teleworkers whose motto is ??work is something you do, not something you travel to??.?? The variety and breadth of homeworkers?? roles is as diverse as the workforce as a whole: from accountant to journalist and musician to software project manager. The one thing that unites pretty much all of them is their need to use technology on a daily basis.
