With an iOS 19-Powered Desktop, ‘WorkPlay’ Could Revolutionise Your Entire Day

Using a phone as a computer is much more useful than you’d think

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The reveal of iOS19 is only a few scant weeks away and a last-minute rumour points towards Apple making further use of that USB-C port in your new iPhone. With an optional desktop tether, your iPhone 16 series device will let you activate a Stage Manager-esque desktop, allowing you to navigate windowed apps with a keyboard and mouse. Chances are you already have a regular computer and might question the value an iPhone might bring as a replacement. By looking at how and why it exists on rival platforms and drawing on my own experiences using it, you may well find an iPhone is the only computer you ever need to own.

Like many great phone innovations, the origin of the ‘desktop output’ lay with Apple’s historic rival Microsoft. By plugging a Windows 10 Phone directly into an extra box that managed the display, peripherals and charging it would load a familiar Windows environment onto a monitor. Apps were then ran straight off of the phone, accessing all the data you were already logged into. Instead of lugging around a heavy laptop or having to repeatedly log in to multiple PCs, users could just access the phone that was already with them and easily port it between home and office. Less IT kit to manage for techs and no…