>Whenever I mention x86's domination of the computing market, people bring up ARM, but ARM has a lot more market share in people's minds than in actual numbers. One research firm says that ARM has 15% of the laptop market share in 2023, expected to increase to 25% by 2027. (Surprisingly, Apple only has 90% of the ARM laptop market.) In the server market, just an estimated 8% of CPU shipments in 2023 were ARM. See Arm-based PCs to Nearly Double Market Share by 2027 and Digitimes. (Of course, mobile phones are almost entirely ARM.
"ARM has a lot more market share in people's minds than in actual numbers"
How about "user programmable computers," whereas phones are "terminals".
I mean, I agree with your point; but the distinction is there. We need some way to differentiate between computers for hacking and computers that are vending machines for the hacks of others
Do we? Purists will claim that because I can't run xcode on an iphone, it doesn't count as a "real computer", and that's true, to some degree. the thing is, people who aren't programmers these days also use computers, and don't use them to compile binaries. Would we call a laptop that never has a compiler installed a "vending machine for the hacks of others"? (I'm not sure what that even means.) Would a chromebook be such a machine, up until a compiler is installed? Given that people run businesses off ipads; send/recieving emails, writing docs and spreadsheets, why do we draw the line for everybody at can-compile-on-machine? If a web developer using web vscode/ssh can do remote development on an ipad, why, again, is can-compile-on-mahine our important metric? It seems like an unnecessary purity test that doesn't stack up to the modern era of the Internet.
If I write simple programs on a iPhone using Shortcuts, does it become a general purpose computer? It's programming, just with a UI and its own graphical language. How complex a program do you have to be able to "compile" in order for it to count as writing a program on device? Because there are tons of little programs being written using Shortcuts, (and also Pythonista), so you'll have to be more specific.
> How about "user programmable computers," whereas phones are "terminals".
My install of Termux from F-Droid on my Android phone disagrees with that. While more limited than a PC, most smartphones can still be considered "user programmable computers".
"ARM has a lot more market share in people's minds than in actual numbers"
haha, that's true, especially on HN