iOS Needs A Desktop Environment When Plugged Into A Monitor

It is time for Apple to give us a much needed features that I think many users are not aware they need: for them to plug their iPhone into an monitor and instantly use it as a desktop computer. I feel this is a feature is that is long overdue and will greatly enhance user experience and provide iPhone users greater productivity and enables Apple to truly innovate beyond the segmented OS that they created for the different categories of products.

This is a feature that already exists on Android for some time. While I do not know if Android users take advantage of the ability to use their phones as a computer when plugged into a monitor, I feel this is something iPhone users will greatly appreciate more given that Apple will implement it better given their experience with the MacOS and now iPadOS. 

I will likely get a new HDTV in the next few months. The current one I have works well for Youtube videos and some movies but it's showing it age after 15 years. I put Youtube videos on my iPhone and play them on the TV via Airplay but I want to get a good one so that I can use it as a monitor as well. At work, I already use a TV as a secondary monitor in my Windows laptop. Being able to plug in the iPhone with the TV and use a keyboard and mouse and instantly get to work on my writing or Youtube video of my dog would be great. No need to have to go transfer the video from my iPhone to the Mac in order to start editing.

Here is a video of what the experience is right now when the iPhone is plugged into a TV or monitor. It is very much like the one you see when you use the mirroring function through Airplay.

Apple can vastly improve this experience. I hate to say this next part but we are not likely to see this in the near future. Perhaps we will never see this at all. From Apple's perspective, If users want a desktop experience when they hook up an Apple device to a monitor, they already have options - Mac and iPad. There is a rumor that Apple will release a consumer grade MacBook powered by the chips used in iPhones. As far as Apple is concerned, the desktop computing through an iPhone is unnecessary and takes away from the iPad and Mac experiences. Plus, I can see things get messy and confusing and require Apple do a complete rethinking of how apps before.

This is not to say that we will never see such a feature. We still could if computing landscape changes. This is especially true if the competitors like Google and Samsung starts to offer seamless and enjoyable desktop experiences through their phones. Google is merging Android and ChromeOS. I think it is a great first step for mobile computing to come to the phones when plugged into monitors. 

It may never be the one device to do it all but it could work for a vast majority of users.