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Comment by Teever | Hacker News Reader

Damn, you got me thinking now, that Valve of all people could probably put out a Linux phone.

The Steam Phone could be a game changer.

You may actually be onto something here!

Especially if the smaller steam deck clones like Aya neo Air Pro ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw-0ngNgGC0 ) can support voice calls and a decent camera (the only other things my "mobile gamer" friends care about in a phone), I think there will be a niche market around it. Nokia N-Gage reborn!

We already have decent enough android apps support on linux using anbox / waydroid. For the edge case android apps.

I don’t believe that can happen. The steam deck kind of works because they pack in a bunch of peripherals that won’t fit into a phone. The touchscreen experience on it is miserable. 99% of steam games with touchscreen controls would be totally a sad experience.

What it is is a laptop in a funny case.

For a niche market, possibly. However, I just don't see Valve as a company being interested in becoming a phone manufacturer. What would realistically be in for them? It's strategically mostly irrelevant to their core business, with the sole exception of the Steam Store. But to create, develop and support a whole phone platform (hard- and software) just to sell mobile games? I don't see it.

You underestimate the size of the opportunity. The mobile game market was $119 billion in 2021.

Given the complexities involved in such an endeavor, I'm still confident in my assessment, especially when confronted with a one-liner just throwing a large number against the wall. If Microsoft couldn't get a mobile OS off the ground, despite trying, I don't see what the opportunity size has anything to do with it. Focusing on (even casual) gamers with specialized hardware works for a gaming-focused company, whereas a general-purpose device would not. Compare Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck. Strictly speaking this is part of mobile gaming, with significantly higher margins.

Yes. But the gamer niche is just that. A niche. A toe hold. A position every up and coming brand / product dreams about. They can extend out from there.

MS on the other hand, drank its own Kool Aid, threw it's weight around, went all in...and walked away empty handed. There was little value add. There was zero coolness. Etc.

There are some similarities but that was then, this is now. A device that's "proven" - and some privacy tossed in - can probably find a market just beyond the gaming niche.

Given the possible target market, there is a reason why only a handful of companies are producing competitive smartphones today. It reads as wishful thinking to me that a competitor would arise, bringing “cool” and “privacy” and whatever else along with them.

If nothing else, you simply couldn’t get the parts and manufacturing capacity needed to go beyond a niche product without effectively building the capacity out of pocket. Not to mention the headaches of dealing with network providers. And you basically will have to become an advanced digital camera manufacturer as well. Add battery life, size and price into the mix and you end up with portable consoles instead of phones. Like we have today.

Simply put: by not doing a general purpose device, you skip several metric tons of issues that occupy your focus but gain you very little.

Look at Fairphone. They're doing a modular, fully repairable phone build in a form factor that's only slightly bigger than current phones. They're not quite perfect wrt. openness, Linux status etc. but getting there.

This actually confirms my points. They are a niche company doing a niche device for a completely different target market, entirely not focused on performance but eco-friendliness. They are not mainstream competitive. The devices’ camera is at best usable. Also: needs Android to work at all.

Nothing MS does has coolness. Remember the Zune? Functionally it was a great alternative to the iPod. It just totally lacked cool. I mean dark brown seriously? Or Windows 8, they just lack total feeling with what the market wants (or think they know better)

I think Microsoft is an organisation that's just too fragmented. Different BUs pulling it into different directions without a clear overall strategy.

Like with edge, they do some good stuff like ad/tracking blocking but at the same time introduce really nasty buy now and pay later scams that undermine any chance of it becoming a respected product. And that have no place in a browser at all.

> "If Microsoft couldn't get a mobile OS off the ground, despite trying..."

Google was actively sabotaging access to their services, like Youtube, at that time. With the amount of regulatory scrutiny they're under today, they wouldn't dare try it again.

Exactly, maybe they could do a "gaming phone" like Nokia tried before.

The Steam Deck is very impressive.

The taco phone was hardly a success, or the n-gage variants.

Yeah, I think the main issue is getting support for WhatsApp and banking and ID services (that usually block even just rooted Android phones).

I'm literally writing this comment from my Steam Deck.

I would buy a Steam Phone, and I'd want a big Valve logo on its back, and an easter egg that says "half-life 3 is not coming"

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