Yeah, that's my bigger worry: that "desktop" (and then "laptop") are going to become niche platforms that only old-timers use.
I dread our only-phone future.
I dread our only-phone future.
Will desktop and laptops become niche, or are smartphones/tablets finding a far broader and popular market?
You can grab your smartphone and even tablet while you're riding the subway/train/bus/whatever, but you would never use a desktop I'm that scenario. Same goes for the line in your supermarket, a quick trip to the restroom, during lunch, etc.
The smartphone didn't replaced the desktop. It replaced the newspaper/magazine/mobile phone
The truth of the matter is that the smartphone form factor is far more suited for a broader range of usages than your desktop/laptop, and the combination of those use patterns with technology limitations do warrant specialized app life cycles and UX patterns. Desktop/laptops are suited for entirely different use patterns.
I'm more afraid of laptops turning into phones, via Microsoft Store/ App Store, scary "unknown publisher" warnings, etc. It's getting harder and harder to run what you want on computers.
The problems isn't just the form factor. It's primarily that phones and tablets are significantly dumbed down, closed, and more user hostile devices. Windows is already trending more toward the phone experience with dumbed down interfaces, forced updates, telemetry, and ads baked in and it has made it all but unusable. I want less of that, not more.
Computers need to work for, and be owned by, the user. We had that, and we're rapidly losing ground.
Also, text editor and gcc is all I ever need. How many hoops would I have to jump through to get GPL programs unprohibited on iOS?
My desktop is a dedicated workstation machine that I want to be running even when I lug my phone around the house.
You can basically s/phone/laptop above and it still doesn't quite work for me. Doing it with a phone only makes it worse.
Maybe for some it can work, it just doesn't for me. I very much prefer the concept of continuity, where I have a number of devices that I can pickup, and whatever I want to do can be carried over in a transparent way across all of them, while having each device be the best at what it is, some able to do unique stuff and some having overlaps in functionality.