[mulmen]

The smartphone completely replaced the personal computer for most people.

10 years ago all my non-tech friends and family had laptops. Now they all use their smartphones as primary computing devices. My nephew who just graduated from high school and works in IT doesn’t even own a personal laptop.

[bobthepanda]

This makes sense; a personal computer at this point is either a phone or a desktop for high performance niches, and laptops are in the unsatisfying middle. Particularly anything in the netbook or ultrabook segment.

[freehorse]

I used to agree to this statement, before apple silicon came.

Also, mini pcs is a new trend nowadays. I wouldn't say that this is the direction things go any more.

[bobthepanda]

They're good at the performance niche, but how many people need performance? The mac is good at coding and media editing (not gaming) and that's not an everyday person market; I think the market will continue to shrink.

I'd also say a mini PC is still a "performant desktop" in a smaller form factor, which is probably a reaction to gaming desktops becoming unnecessarily large and unwieldy. Similar to how importing Japanese kei trucks has become popular now that American pickups are sized for vanity and not work practicality.

[freehorse]

I am not sure about how the market shrinks or expands. There may be a lot of reasons people may need a computer instead of a phone, like even writing emails is not that convenient on a phone to do it on regular basis. People may still do it on a tablet with an external keyboard, and theoretically they could also use an external keyboard and screen on a phone, but phones are not really designed for that for a non-techy person (I have tried to use an iphone in this way, it was a horrible user experience due to iOS). Smartphones are chastised devices. They could have a lot of potential if they were actually letting people do stuff on them, but that's not what they are designed for. They are designed for serving content passively while giving as little freedom to the user as possible.

Mini PCs have the same problem like laptops, in trying to squeeze performance in a small form factor which then poses a heat dissipation issue (and even more because the adapter is typically inside the form in this case and that results in more heat). And you cannot put the same high end gaming gpu in a small form factor, which is an extra characteristic they share with laptops vs larger desktops.

Also macs are fine with gaming if the game actually runs. It would not be my primary choice or suggestion if looking specifically for a gaming machine, but I also do not need to look for another machine for gaming now that I have a macbook anyway, as it runs games good enough at high end settings. But a mini pc would not have been a suggestion as gaming machine either.

[bee_rider]

My dad worked from the 90’s until recently. He never owned a laptop. Until he retired, he went out and bought one almost immediately upon retirement, hah.