"There's an app for that"—this famous line didn't just sell iPhones, it killed the PC. In the early to mid-2000s, it was clear: phones were for communication, computers were for everything else, and laptops were for the rich. This is demonstrated across multiple TV shows well. Zoey 101—the teens are impressed with their T-Mobile Hiptops that can send instant messages and browse the web, but the primary computing and web browsing device is a computer. Good Luck Charlie also shows this as well, with the vlogs being recorded on a video camera and edited on a very prominent laptop.
However, as smartphones got more powerful and more applications got developed, companies and consumers got lazy. On any given day, the top 10 applications will be some sort of messaging application, some social media application, and a shopping application. As smartphones proliferated and usage in the USA doubled from 107.2 million in 2011 to 217.3 million in 2015, companies decided that the next frontier was not desktop but mobile.
This led to a rage of app-controlled toys, like the Rev car that could only be controlled via Bluetooth with a compatible smartphone. Drone companies got in the game as well, opting to stream the camera and controls over Wi-Fi to your phone's display. Toys that had computer software in the ’90s and early 2000s switched to mobile apps and ad-supported games.
The top websites/applications included Instagram and Snapchat—both mobile-first or mobile-only platforms—essentially pushing out the PC and pushing all communication and development to the web.
It gets much worse though. Accessories and devices like GPS trackers, cheap Wi-Fi cameras, even smart speakers now REQUIRE a phone for setup when a laptop or desktop computer would suffice. That cheap $30 RC car or drone with a laggy Wi-Fi camera? Yep, you need a phone, when an RF-based monitor or web access on a PC would be so much better and more efficient.
You want cool camera features? Sorry, Snapchat Lenses is dead—better have a Mac. You want to use a GPS tracker? Better have an iPhone. You want to check on your mini spy camera? Sorry, only your phone can use that scammy Chinese app. Even streaming is better on a phone, with offline episode support and a dedicated program.
And most egregious of all is the Rattlegram and Motorola Talkabout applications. Why is an SDR app ONLY available on mobile? And for the love of all that's good, why can't you use your computer as a keyboard when using the Motorola Talkabout walkie-talkies as a modem? That's literally what a computer is for—but nooo, you need an app.
Where does this place computers? Back at being thin clients for the increasingly boring web. And it places phones in an entirely different category—one that has millions of apps, but only three are really used.
Nothing new is learned, nothing is innovated, and life stays the same.
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