Drive to Discover Report on ABC News
The new status symbol in Silicone Valley is multiple computer screens. Size doesn’t matter anymore, it’s how many you have. Richard Hart, a San Francisco, CA reporter for ABC News reports on a phenomena of three or even four monitors per person.
People in the financial industry have used more than one monitor for years, but lately it’s becoming common for the rest of us. Rhoda Alexander is one of a growing number of people who use more than one computer monitor at the same time.
She has a dual monitor setup attached to her multiple monitor laptop. From what I could see it looked like a dual monitor adapter was how she linked them together. Combined with her laptop, this gave her a great multiple monitor display in which she had grown accustomed to using.
Rhoda who is a monitor analyst for a suppy Co says, “It helps me tremendously, because typically in your average day, I may have 15 different files open at the same time.” She also goes on to say that there’s a certain amount of jealousy that come her way due to her multi screen luxuries. ”I have office mates come by and say “wow i love your setup”..
Two developments are driving the boom in multiple monitors. The first is plug and play connectors that make it easy to daisy chain as much as an 8 monitor display at once. One company multi-monitors.com expects sales to triple in the next year, and that’s largely due to the rise of portable computing. In the coming year consumers will buy more notebooks than desktops for the first time.
Already over 35% of consumer buy and extra monitor at the same time they buy the notebook computer. People like the portability but not the small screen.
Although Rhoda says she can work on the road with the kind of work that she does, but there’s always that sigh of relief when she gets back to where she has a multi screen display to spread her work out on.
Why not use a single humongous monitor? Ergonomics. Experts say that it’s not a good idea to keep looking up and down and it’s easier on the eyes to have the screens folded in on you.
When asked, Rhoda said she could use a few more monitors.
