Will Apple do what MSFT and HP couldn't?

[1kmerenda]

A few years ago, HP released the Elite X3 - A Windows 10 smartphone that could be docked and used as your laptop. I'm an IT manager, and I love the vision behind this: you have one device, and it does everything you need. Its your phone while you're out and about, but drop it in a dock and its now your PC.

The problem with the Elite was apps. It could only run MS store apps, and in 2016 (and even now) that was a pretty slim offering.

Now that Apple is going to their own chips on Macs, and they're making iOS/iPadOS apps compatible with apple silicon Macs by default, do you see them trying to do "1 device" right? iPad is almost there already, and iPhone isn't far behind. On the flip side, achieving "1 device" would mean that Apple is selling less hardware, and services revenue becomes more important than ever.

I for one, would love it if I could dock my iPhone and get the Mac desktop experience, then revert back to iOS when undocked.

Thoughts?

 

[tranceking26]

Interesting thoughts, it might be cool to have a 1 device does all, but who knows if Apple would be up for it.

 

[TGM85]

Bad for sales / revenue / bottom line.

Why sell people just one device when you can sell them a phone, a tablet and a laptop/desktop computer.

 

[Falhófnir]

I seem to recall the real problem there (alongside the limitations of Win 10 Mobile) was that it's not actually as useful as it first sounds. If you want a laptop form factor on the go, you have to carry a laptop 'mule' with you to dock the phone into - so why not just carry a laptop? If a coffee shop, Library or Uni Campus provides screens you can plug into, you still need to carry a keyboard and mouse, again, why not just take a small form factor laptop like the 12" MacBook where it's all built in?

 

[DeanL]

Cooling. Cooling. Cooling.

 

[burgerrecords]

This seems inevitable in some manner, however, I expect computing as service will come first - that your user information (applications, data and settings) will be cloud based in such a way that the device itself becomes pretty irrelevant. The benefits of using your phone as a portable computer won't be beneficial, when any other connected device already has sufficient processing power to anything it needs to render locally.

There will be separate ecosystems, but I don't see why the phone is integral to that other than perhaps for biometrics or Mfa. Ecosystems will likely be far more important than hardware in terms of revenue baring new breakthroughs in the way computers, mobile devices and networks are used.

Like how you can login to Chrome on any computer and it becomes "your" computer for much of what folks do on a computer; the phone doesn't need to be in the middle of that hand off. Or to some extent when you restore your backup on a new apple device.

B

 

[AustinIllini]

Doubtful. They would rather do two devices well than one device that does a second form factor poorly

 

[burgerrecords]

Doubtful. They would rather do two devices well than one device that does a second form factor poorly

Once it makes sense to do, it makes sense to do, like for example instead of selling a small wireless monitor for macbook, apple adapted iPad for "sidecar" as a knock on because it became technologically feasible and useful.

Or look at all the ways folks use screen mirroring from iPhone to Apple TV even when a native, dedicated tvOS option is available.

Giving wireless display and wireless keyboard/mouse access to an iPhone once an iPhone can run MacOS sufficiently well could be very handy.

 

[Thoradin]

This is a concept that I would love to see happen properly. First there was Microsoft’s Continuum, then there was Samsung’s DEX effort.
If Apple could pull off the one device for everything I would be first in line to pick up the whole system.
I do believe it is more likely to be iPad based than iPhone though.

 

[dpace32]

Apple could still keep macOS / iPadOS / iOS but have 1 device run them all based on when its connected to a USB-C monitor or hub. Paired with a Trackpad 2/Keyboard this could be a dream combo. When traveling why not use an iPad - Apple already added trackpad support. For those times you need more power, run a virtual desktop env through iCloud that seamlessly adds additional GPU, CPUs and RAM while keep all storage in sync.

 

[ian87w]

The problem here is expectation. We have certain expectation on what we can do on a phone, and what we can do on a desktop setting. An iPhone is great in its current form factor, but can it sustain the high performance when we start expecting desktop-class activities and performance?

I think this is why Apple made the iPad and features like handoff. The iPad has become that "bridge" of desktop-class performance, while it is portable enough to be carried around with you.