If I could only have one consumer computing device to make a movie, or a drawing, or a anything involving photos, I'd pick one of those "consumption" devices over a desktop or laptop without hesitation. Even a phone, for anything involving the camera. The form factor and extra/better sensors make them great for all kinds of things.
I'd also rather have an iPhone helping me out in the workshop than a laptop or desktop, for a bunch of reasons. I can use it as a measuring device, a level, a note-taking/shopping-list machine (hands free, even!), a youtube how-to player, an instruction manual finder, and so on, and it fits in my pocket and reasonable amounts of sawdust and liquid won't hurt it. That's creation.
People spend most of their time on "real" computers consuming, too, by a huge margin. I still wouldn't say their (computers') primary focus is consumption. Anyway, the premise is kind of nonsense as consumption is a major part of many creative processes.
This is all true. But the barrier to go from consuming to creating is a lot higher now.
Making silly little programs in BASIC or Perl is a lot tougher on an iphone, and that's what sparked the interest for a lot of people (though maybe I'm wrong and it's getting easier?)
For the specific case of creating software, then? I'd say the Swift Playground is (much) easier to get started with and also more compelling than hacking around with Perl on (at first) Win98 was.
I'd also rather have an iPhone helping me out in the workshop than a laptop or desktop, for a bunch of reasons. I can use it as a measuring device, a level, a note-taking/shopping-list machine (hands free, even!), a youtube how-to player, an instruction manual finder, and so on, and it fits in my pocket and reasonable amounts of sawdust and liquid won't hurt it. That's creation.
People spend most of their time on "real" computers consuming, too, by a huge margin. I still wouldn't say their (computers') primary focus is consumption. Anyway, the premise is kind of nonsense as consumption is a major part of many creative processes.