Laptop skins are the latest must-have accessory riding the trend for portable technology as fashion and self-expression.

Whether you call them laptop skins, laptop stickers or laptop raps, a must have laptop accessory trend has hit our shores. The ‘Skins’ as they are most commonly known, are the latest way to express oneself through technology. They give you freedom to personalise your technology with designs that are displayed in cyber galleries or to customise your laptop skin using your own digital artwork. 

Laptop skin companies are mushrooming on the Internet as people catch on to the latest IT accessory. Sites such as www.laptopMod.com, www.lap-rap.com, www.macstylez.com.au and www.tekskin.com.au - to name a few - are offering Australian consumers a unique concept in art for laptops. The product is a high-quality PVC vinyl self-adhesive with a high gloss clear laminate, printed with UV stable inks that you adhere to the outer shell of your computer. 

They serve a couple of purposes, one is protection, as the vinyl is durable and acts like a kind of shock absorber if the device is bumped or dropped. This protection can be increased by simply covering over the top of the old skin when you want to update the design. Alternatively you can remove the old one and just replace it. 

Which brings me to the topic of cost. The skins are relatively cheap. Lap-Rap sells them online for $20 when you upload your own image or $24.95 if you select from their online gallery, and by ‘gallery’ I mean the designs on offer are actually created by emerging artists. 

Skins retail for $40 on the Tekskin website and the company describes the products as the ‘latest must-have laptop accessory’. 

However the main purpose of the product is to allow people to express their individuality on their laptop. Lap-Rap founder Vic Lake also uses his site as an online gallery for underprivileged young artists to show their work, receiving 20% of the profits of ‘Rap’s’ (as he calls them) sold. “The whole concept is about people…it provides people with an Internet platform where I can help people help themselves,” he said. 

Place your favourite things for the world to see on your laptop.

Lap-Rap’s origins
So how did Lake come up with the idea? “I am an architect and I was doing work with a signage company, I saw them using materials to put on cars for signage and I thought it should be able to be used in a digital format. I thought it could turn my old laptop into something brand new and different. And I started a website, a community of people.” 

Is he happy with the response to his product? “I’d say I’m an impatient person, so I thought it would have been quicker, but I’m really happy with how it’s progressing,” Lake said. 

Self-expression
So why turn your computer into a medium for self-expression? “I think it’s a spin off from T-shirts, they are ways where people can express themselves in the media and make a statement. It gives you a chance to be individual,” Lake said. 

“I think laptops will exceed mobiles in popularity shortly because of our need to communicate and all those other great things a laptop offers. I like that the laptop manufacturers have actually cottoned on to the trend. Just as we change our clothes, you can dress a laptop up as you can dress yourself,” he added. 

Lake says his demographic is wide-ranging, from people in their fifties right through to teenagers. “At the moment probably girls are more likely to take them up, but it’s a matter of time, girls are more adventurous in expressing themselves. Males will tend to use it for business more so than women.” 

Vincent Cheong is part of the team at www.macstylez.com.au. His company’s skins are produced by a US-based brand called Gelaskins. 

“Gelaskin’s have been selling extremely well due to a growing trend of people who want to inject more personality into their iPhones, Laptops etc. More and more people are carrying these gadgets with them everyday, so it seems natural that they would like to customise them to their own tastes,” he said. 

Cheong says that they stock several types of gelaskin’s for devices ranging from the iPhone, iPod through to the Macbooks and Mac Powerbooks. They range from $19.95 for iPhone models to $54.95 for laptops designs. 

Stick photos of the people, places and things you love on your notebook.

Marketing tool for companies
Lake has worked with Harvey Norman at Taren Point in Sydney’s south, creating customized Rap’s for their sales staff.
 
“They designed a Rap with all the products they’ve sold arranged in a mosaic, then they had the Harvey Norman logo in a white banner and below the banner, the sales rep’s name and mobile phone number,” 

“So it’s like a portable showroom. Given we’re in a recession, people will be doing a lot more face to face customer interaction and this will be a tool that will help with that,” he added. 

Positive feedback
The laptop ‘skin’ concept itself is quite fresh in Australia but already it has gained a legion of devotees. This is a snapshot of what one ‘Lap-Rap’ blogger known as ‘Chocolatesuze’ had to say about her new Rap: 

“…I scored this awesome custom made Laprap which is a protective sticker to ward off future scratches because hey accidents happen and I am accident prone heh and now I can sit in cafes and advertise my blog you can customise your sticker with photos of ya friends, food or logo and the sticker is easily removable in case you want to match your outfit! Check them out here."