[throwaway7679]

Phones have highly integrated parts, lack of IO ports, toy operating systems, and other major trade-offs, for the sake of size and power usage, which would all be disadvantages or total non-starters in a desktop environment.

This situation hasn't changed in the slightest during the last 10 years. Is there any reason to think it will change during the next 10 years? Even if a future phone could be used in the place of a tower to run a set of desktop peripherals, how is that even useful?

[Helper29]

>This situation hasn't changed in the slightest during the last 10 years.

There has been a significant decrease in desktops in the last decade. My wife works with children (12-18) and their main computing is done on phones - including school assignments, resume building, and applying for college/jobs.

>Even if a future phone could be used in the place of a tower to run a set of desktop peripherals, how is that even useful?

A computer that is customized to your liking, logged in to your account, has a cellular data connection, and is able to fit in your pocket (and you’re already carrying it). It’s an incredible proposition.

[skydhash]

> There has been a significant decrease in desktops in the last decade. My wife works with children (12-18) and their main computing is done on phones - including school assignments, resume building, and applying for college/jobs.

Maybe because they're young and their bodies allow them to do this. I'm near 30 and as soon I have something that's not mainly reading, I prefer my 24 inch screen and separate keyboard and mouse. My only activities on the phone are browsing, chatting, and light reading, things that require little interactions.

[throwaway7679]

> There has been a significant decrease in desktops in the last decade.

Indeed, but not because phones have gotten any closer to desktop work.

What good is a phone, today, when using multiple monitors for 3d modelling, video editing, programming, spreadsheets, flight sims, or some such? None whatsoever.

And there's no apparent trend toward it, so it doesn't make much sense to predict when it will be reached.

Desktop usage will likely continue to decline as phones, tablets, VR, and whatever other devices continue to supplant them _in certain areas_, but that's insufficient to render them obsolete.

[sds357]

Maybe a docking station for the phone with all the peripherals plugged into that. That's how I work now with my thinkpad and 3 monitors and other devices already plugged in ready to go.

[sircastor]

Samsung has tried to push this a bit in The last few years. It hasn’t really caught on in the us, but I think that is partly because most people spend most of their desk computing time at work, and our phones are more often our personal devices than they are our work devices.