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Comment by orev | Hacker News Reader

The sad reality is that market forces don’t want this to happen, since it would cannibalize sales of those other devices. It’s much better for manufacturers to make sure a phone can only do “phone stuff” and a PC can only do “PC stuff”, because then you need to buy both devices.

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The HP Elite x3 running Windows Phone 10 had a dock that would let you plug in a monitor and peripherals to provide a desktop Windows environment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Elite_x3

If Intel hadn't cancelled their x86 smartphone chip (Broxton?), I wouldn't have been surprised to see an x86 Windows Phone with a desktop mode.

I'm unconvinced. Lots of people are increasingly fine with just phones. My dad I sort of see but I had a co-worker who told me their kid didn't even want a laptop for schoolwork which blew my mind a bit but so it goes.

Any hybrid would be a compromise for me. I do have multiple systems--almost certainly more than I need.

orev is not talking about people. He's talking about market forces. That is, device manufacturing companies.

I don't see who is refusing to sell you a phone with various attachments that make a workable computer (especially given 3rd party providers). I just bought such with an iPad. You could do something along the same lines with an iPhone I suppose but I'd probably find it unsatisfactory. Still on the fence whether the iPad is still a fully satisfactory companion device for traveling in general.

In the Apple ecosystem, the one “refusing to sell you…” is Apple, and not only the required peripherals but also not making the software work that way. Because if they did, then you wouldn’t need to buy a Mac.

Macs are not especially relevant to Apple revenue at this point. iPad plus magnetic keyboard is getting pretty close. Still not sure that better multitasking would push me over the edge to not wanting a MacBook for serious day-to-day multitasking work.

I do think they're trending in that direction but I actually like that they're not pushing people faster than feels comfortable. I expect to see a convergence of iPads and at least MacBook Airs but we're not quite there yet.

> who told me their kid didn't even want a laptop for schoolwork which blew my mind a bit but so it goes

Some people insist on self sabotaging. It's sad.

Seems pretty judgmental even if I'm not really in a position to weigh in on whether it's a particularly bad idea or not.

If you're in school you will have to write papers. It is objectively a worse experience to do so on a phone than on a full sized keyboard and screen.

A piece of paper and any kind of pencil will do just fine for writing papers. There is no need for a laptop.

Don't know what schools typically require these days. But I generally agree that requiring laptops, especially in younger grades, seems unnecessary.

>a co-worker who told me their kid didn't even want a laptop for schoolwork

It's not like kids ever wanted computers for schoolwork in general...

They absolutely did. Back in the early 2000 everyone in my friend group would tell their parents that they needed a powerful PC for schoolwork and that's how they got gaming PCs.

Yes, so still: it's not like kids ever wanted computers for schoolwork in general.

Saying they wanted computers for schoolwork, is another matter.

Sure, that's true.

Growing up without access to a proper computer still seems weird to me. How do we expect kids to build computing literacy?

Certainly I never developed any computer literacy growing up--and, indeed in college. And I worked in the computer industry most of my adult life.

I'm not sure how to interpret your comment. Do you think kids should be exposed to proper computers or do you think it doesn't matter and can always be picked up later.

I don't think this true. Microsoft really, really tried to make UWP a real thing so you could buy a Windows Phone and turn it into a PC by adding it to a docking station, and consumers were totally uninterested. I've never seen or heard of anybody using Samsung Dex in any real capacity apart from a party trick either. I think lack of phone-PC convergence is a bottom-up phenomenon, not a top-down one.

It would have helped if they waited that the market would grew beyond 10%, and didn't keep messing up the whole development experience, that even on Windows desktop made everyone besides Windows team lose interest.

Now they want to sell services, while Apple and Google control all major endpoints.

I think Google is well-positioned to do it. They have experience with ChromeOS already, and running Linux apps on Android should be at least somewhat plausibly deniable. Google doesn't sell laptops either, so they aren't especially worried about the cannibalization.

/describe Pixelbook looks at its shoes.

Google is in the process of making chrome os just another android device

You've literally been able to do this for nearly a decade with most Android phones.

Market forces have included it in every Samsung phone since the S8?

TBH Snapdragons aren't quite there yet. Apple chips on the other hand...

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