In much larger terms, a company or university can provide more powerful development systems (more CPUs/GPUs/RAID arrays, etc.) at a lower cost (both capital and energy and laptop/IP theft risk) per programmer in a server room, or in the cloud, than providing hardware capable of such to each developer.
Then either a web interface, or a streamed remote desktop, can be sent to each developer's less expensive iPads and Chromebooks, etc.
Except, of course, for specialized development needs (testing low-latency "twitch" games, real-time music, hardware interfacing, etc.)
For an individual coder, they might very likely prefer their own MacBook (Pro|Air), et.al., or something else driving a very large pair of monitors.