A laptop as an office computer?

I was recently at the Odesa office of PeopleNet, the mobile inter­net provider, and noticed that they use lap­tops as their work computers. It looks as if the com­pany doesn’t care how much it spends on equip­ment and on run­ning its offices.

The way I see it, a laptop as a work com­puter is:

1. Expensive (more expen­sive than a tra­di­tional desk­top com­puter): costs
2. Harder and more expen­sive to repair (often prac­ti­cally impos­si­ble, and you have to buy a new com­puter): costs
3. Practically impos­si­ble to upgrade: costs
4. A small screen (at that same PeopleNet I noticed an employee hunched over to make out the details on his laptop screen): staff eye­sight and posture
5. A key­board with­out a numpad (it really does let you type num­bers faster): lower productivity

There is a chance, though, that these are their own com­put­ers and they take them home in the evening. Some people really do that. But I doubt it.