We keep putting more powerful chips into phones, and giving them bigger screens, but we never turn them into useful computers. Why is this?

Globally, mobile+tablet crossed 50% of web traffic in October 2016 (51.3% vs. desktop's 48.7%) [0]. For the world minus HN, we’re entering the second decade of phones being useful computers for the most common definition of useful.

[0](https://gs.statcounter.com/press/mobile-and-tablet-internet-...)

I think it's clear that Apple has recognized that their target markets don't care to have useful computers. Just look way back to when Steve Jobs was still alive and he was talking about how "PCs are going to be like trucks. Fewer people will need them. And this is going to make some people uneasy."

They could certainly add features to make them more like general purpose computers, but there's a bit of product development and engineering "tax" they'd have to pay over time to maintain that aspect. Much easier from a product development standpoint to create products that provide a walled-garden experience, especially if that's what most customers want.

I have a Chromebook with an ~11 inch screen. It’s basically the minimum size where a keyboard is still useable. I like it a lot, but it’s actually too big when I want to use it as a tablet.

I think this is the tension. Or maybe we just need to master one handed keyboards.

Samsung dex really excited me when I tried it, but it still had a little ways to go. I am shocked it's not a bigger priority.

“Useful computer” is subjective. It seems to be difficult for HN users to imagine a device that doesn’t have a terminal for example, but the overwhelming majority of users simply do not care. Many of them manage just fine with a smartphone as their primary (if not their only) computer, so clearly they are useful enough.

Android is getting close, with Google adding desktop support akin to Samsung's Dex when the phone is connected to a dock.

Apple has had a patent[1] for like a decade at this point which involved placing an iPhone into a slot on a laptop so it could be used in a laptop form, with the phone itself serving as the touchpad.

[1]: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/apple-patents-device-that-doc...

Edit to add: the phone itself is intended to be the main processing unit, the “laptop” is just a screen and keyboard.

abuse over a monopoly is the reason. probably you already knew that though?

if they made it a useful computer, they couldnt charge 30% of revenue to their app store customers

At this point I don't even really need a phone. Nobody makes calls anymore and I can use my watch for 911 calls.

What I need is a more portable iPad. But that would cannibalize iPhone sales.

That seems to be entirely the purpose of this device. Instead of just a larger display, it's meant to provide a "second monitor" for multitasking or more context.

With terminal emulators, tailscale, local and remote agents, there's never been so much computing capability accessible from your pocket before.

What do you want to do on your iPhone that you can't do now?

Have you seen how the average person uses their phone?

You want what, a terminal that you type on w/an onscreen keyboard?

Apple's lack of vision and fear of innovation. Jobs is gone. We're back to 90s Apple. Dumb ideas become dumb products, and no one has the balls to say, No.

It's easier to make an existing thing better. But far harder to come up with a new idea.

You can get something quite useable these days by plugging a pixel into a USB dock with a monitor and a keyboard + mouse

How are you gonna do mandatory age verification on a full fledged computer?

do you not consider your phone a "useful computer"?

Artificial limitations open many new avenues for new and exciting revenue streams.

The moment apple ship MacOS on their iPads, sales for their macbooks will all but collapse.

This is the biggest disappointment, imagine running a full blown "Ubuntu Touch" that gives you the freedom of Linux with full root access. This is the biggest failure of legislation in the 21st century so far that has enabled a strict Android/iOS duopoly.

I sincerely hope one day we can free these hardware devices from the shakles of their software and run anything that's possible.

Until such a time iOS devices are strictly off limits until at least a grapheneOS can run iOS at a minimum.

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