The Apple fans who had previously defended the 3.5-inch screen – myself included – got the new one, got used to it, and never wanted to go back to the smaller screens. It turned out that while the larger screen did make the phone slightly taller, technological progress also let Apple make the phone thinner and much lighter.
We had resisted the idea of bigger screens not because we hated screen space, but because we thought they’d bring major costs in size and weight. But the iPhone 5 really didn’t.
The “right size” principle was disproven. We were wrong.
This is an interesting bit of revisionist history. The argument that in those earlier days, phones with larger screens had to be thicker, heavier, and have less battery life simply does not add up. The Galaxy SII, for instance, was only 4 grams heavier than the iPhone 5, and was unveiled in the timeframe Arment is referring to (early 2011). Battery life on the SII was about two days of use, which is not very different from an iPhone 4/5 either. It was, however, slightly thicker (8.5mm vs. 7.6mm).
This is just one phone, but it illustrates that while it’s nice that he’s admitting both he and Gruber were wrong about display sizes, it’s a bit embarrassing to see him make claims that are provably false. It was obvious to everyone who wasn’t part of any camp that phones with larger screens were going to be the norm – and aside from the obvious argument that they’re bigger, the arguments about weight, battery life, and thickness were untrue then just as much as they are untrue now.
What I’m most interested in tomorrow – aside from the possible smartwatch, which I’m very excited about – is in what ways Tim Cook is going to spin, twist, turn, and revise history to explain why large screen phones are suddenly okay.
Because those will be the arguments copy/pasted on every technology forum for years and years to come.
This is why I come to this site.
Who cares?
And why?
The iPhone product line is evolving. Just like the iPod line did. Remember when the idea that anybody would watch video on an iPod sized screen was scoffed at and then Apple released an iPod that played video? So what? All companies say their products are just what everybody wants until they decide to change them then the new products are just what everyone wants. Is any of that remotely important?
Edited 2014-09-08 22:24 UTC
Apparently, something is important only when an Apple fanboy insists that it is important (single button on a mouse, Motorola cpu’s, cell phone screen size, etc.).
Do you really care about that stuff? If so why? It seems such a trivial thing to care about.
I repeat – all companies claim their products are designed just right, until the moment they change the design, then the new design is just right. Rinse and repeat.
What company says ‘here are our products, the designs may turn out to be a bit sub optimal but at some point in the future we will release a redesigned product”?
The fact that you get very active defending other fanbois, is the reason why we like to poke at you.
You know that you* were wrong by defending Job’s Hummer-phone comment, but it takes courage to admit it. Many don’t have that courage.
* – collective for Apple fans, not necessarily you personally. But I wouldn’t be surprised that you did defend the Hummer phones comments.
Hummer phone?
Because it’s really funny to watch you, and others like you, twist and turn in the wind and defend your favourite brand no matter what cognitive dissonance is required. It’s pure schadenfreude.
Yeah, it doesn’t matter what the company says. It does however, get frustrating when that marketing based thought starts getting accepted as gospel truth by those in position of authority.
I mean, it would have really, really sucked if my manager had bought into the xserve BS. I don’t blame companies for saying BS. I blame those that accept that BS at face value and base strategies on it.
So for screen size, there are some companies that took the screen size to be fixed forever, based on what Apple said. This turned out to be really dumb with the larger screen sizes that came out and they had to pivot fast to redesign.
I don’t know that it’s total BS, though I don’t think he got it right. I think the earlier argument for the smaller screen was a combination of a couple of different things. When the iPhone 3GS shipped, it was probably the right size (and partly due to it’s weight) if you thought 1 handed operation was important. I have relatively large hands (I’m 6′ tall), and I find the smaller screen to be pretty convenient when trying to type something out with only one hand. On my Moto X (moderately larger) I can still type with one hand, but it’s just not as easy.
That said, I still prefer the Moto X screen size, and will be happy to have an iPhone that size. I’m not sure I’d like one much larger, but who knows, I’ll have to try it some time.
For a company, being able to adapt to the market is a strength.
Considering this as a personal thing is YOUR problem, not Tim Cook’s problem. He is Apple’s CEO and his role is to make Apple successful in an evolving market.
If you listen to Apple: customers don’t know what they want, Apple does. Except when Samsung does. I will be buying one of these new iPhones, but the hypocrisy of Apple fanatics is funny and annoying in equal measures.
“If you listen to Apple: customers don’t know what they want, Apple does. Except when Samsung does.”
Where is the hypocrisy? Every company presents their own products as “what customers want”. Always. This is what we call marketing.
Apple do it. Samsung do it. They all do it.
This is not about Apple, it’s about the fanatics.
No, Go back and rewatch the first iphone reveal. Look at the pictures Jobs puts on the screen. Those are what people thought apple was going to give them, because its what they wanted.
Apple gave them something better, that they didn’t even know they wanted. Apple tries to spin everything they do this way, but of course most of it is BS. They do react to market pressures as everyone else does. And often, they screw up and don’t give customers what they want.
This is one of those cases. its a bit of schadenfreude. Its nice to see that they are not all powerful wizards, and prone to mistakes like any other company. A temporary deflation of the reality distortion field.
It also doesn’t hurt to have a huge following of easily brainwashed drones.
This change of mind is yet another typical example of the fanboys getting the facts completely wrong.
The same BS factor applied when Apple supporters insisted on the superiority of the single button mouse and the superiority of Motorola cpu’s, etc.
The same BS factor applies when Apple supporters currently insist on the superiority of: a menu bar attached to the top of the screen (instead of the to the app window); the “full-screen” button which is not full screen; and the list goes on…
What’s amazing is how lightning fast the fanboys can change their tune once their beloved company takes a different approach.
Your comment only shows your obsession with what Apple users think for whatever reason and your inability to understand that people are the same, whether they are Apple users or Windows or Android.
Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong, and sometimes things change and people adapt and change their mind as well.
And FYI, I personally consider that having one top menu is the right way to do it, and I am a Mac and Windows user: does this make me a fanatic? Because YOU disagree with me on something which is quite subjective?
I think the most fanatics are not where you think they are.
Apple fanboys are different.
Apple fanboys are usually wrong.
Please remind me who it was who insisted: that the one button mouse is objectively superior; that Motorola’s cpu’s are objectively superior; that the current and previous Iphone screen sizes are objectively superior?
So, as soon as Apple and it’s fanboys change their minds, everything is suddenly subjective?
I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry when I read your answer. Probably both.
Oh, whatever. The earlier model iPhones were put through the ringer for not having LTE (even though the Android phones that had it at the time barely lasted more than a few hours on a single charge), no SD card slot, no removable battery, etc. To this day, I can remember the deafening silence from the peanut gallery when the Nexus 4 was released. Still today, people are defending the lack of an SD card on devices with no 32gb storage options.
Point is, the bullshit flows in both directions. I’m sure one side will cry, ‘but they do it more!’, which is proof-positive that some of you f-kers *REALLY* need to go outside more. I mean, do you even know what the sun looks like?
Edited 2014-09-09 00:30 UTC
I just noticed it has a bite taken out of the side. Never noticed that before.
Your answers indicate you lack objectivity. Spend some time in any community and you will see the fanatics. They are all over the Android community, and the Linux community, and the Windows community, and every other community out there. If you think Apple is different you are deluded.
So? At the same time Apple created the modern smartphone, the ultrabook, the tablet market, and dominated the MP3 player market. They also said their magnetic power connectors were objectively superior, which they are. They said their operating systems were simpler to use, which they are.
Like everyone else, they are right sometimes, and wrong other times. Time to grow up and chose pragmatism over fanaticism. In our household we have iOS, Android, Windows, ChromeOS, MacOS and Linux. At work we develop on all of those (except ChromeOS). Each one full fills a different need and is good at different things.
You’re wrong. There are plenty of Apple fanatics who will try to sell Apple’s entire product line on any given opportunity, even products they only know by reputation. I’ve yet to see any Linux/Android/Microsoft fan do that.
LOL. You obviously havent hung around places like phandroid.
It’s likely more complex than this. Yes, Apple dominated late in the game in few highly visible markets (iPod sales really picked up only in 2005, with the introduction of
flash-based models: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg )
But the rest of the world simply largely leapfrogged that to mp3-capable mobile phones. Once I stumbled on some report describing how, already in 2007, ~25% of European mobile phone users listened to music on them – that alone, in that one region, was already more people than the total number of iPods ever made.
And personal anecdote time: in my central European late EU-memberstate country (so overall quite prosperous place, but not among the few most visible markets) I can count the number of times I’ve seen an iPod on the fingers of one hand… (well, excluding my iPod of course)
Apple fanboys are usually wrong.
In your opinion and only in your opinion.
No company or person is always right about everything. It is a statistical improbability.
Single menu bar on top of screen was maybe perfectly fine when the screen resolutions were low. Nowdays with huge resolutions the distances to acces the menus are bigger and will only strain your hand for nothing.
Universal single menubar on top is just a relic from the days when people used to run only single application at a time as there was not really space for anything more on screen. Just like the single button mouse it does feel little stupid today when multitasking is the word of the day.
BS.
I can go from the bottom of the screen to the top on my 27″iMac by moving my mouse by about 2cm on my desk.
And using a windows PC at work and a Mac at home, I still consider the single top menu bar as the best solution as you are always interacting with one app at a given time (the front app) and you always know where the menu is on the screen.
This is obviously my own preference, but bases on 20 years of daily usage of both a Mac and a Windows PC.
What was Apples argument for smaller screens?
It was that a smaller screen was necessary for single handed use and that’s what they wanted to support.
Is anyone actually debating this isn’t true? You can’t use a phablet with one hand. Since when is this fact some kind of Apple trickery?
As it turns out, the market as a whole prefers screen size over one handed use, so Apple is following suit by making bigger phones. Just like Samsung finally decided to make a model with metal housing because part of the market prefers that. Seems like we all win from these developments, but of course it’s more fun to stir the pot and invent more exciting stories.
I don’t recall any arguments over battery life, size etc either – it was always about one-handed use. Sounds like someone has a straw-man they’re just fixin’ to burn (sorry for the southern slang – I’m currently reading The Grapes of Wrath).
As someone who often uses his phone with a bag in the other hand, I appreciate that the screen is small enough to use in one hand. The new iPhone 5 screen is a struggle even though I have large hands, but I accept the compromise. But I won’t get a larger iPhone unless I have no choice.
I found while the iPhone 5 screen is a stretch to get to the top, since iOS 7 I don’t have to do it as much anymore because the “back” button can now often be pressed by just swiping anywhere from the left edge. Love that feature.
I could go either way on the size. I’m fine with the current size and appreciate that it’s usable with one hand, but I can see the benefit to a wider screen as well. I suspect the 4.7″ will replace the 4″, although it would be nice to have a high quality small screen option out there.
Companies use several “arguments” for their decisions; there are the external arguments used to sell things, and which usually have nothing to do with reality but rather perception. Then there are internal arguments usually motivated by business goals, and which are the ones that have most to do with reality. Those arguments are usually only known to the people (high up) working and profiting from the organization, while the customers remain blissfully unaware, they’re after all interested in the perception of the product brings them (e.g. most people who love sausages don’t want to really know how they’re made).
Apple’s preference for smaller screens may be very simple: their business model is one which seeks to maximize margins. Which means they want to charge as much as the can, for as little product as they can. A smaller screen thus was more in line with apple’s goals of selling a small device at a premium. A smaller screen is cheaper to manufacture, furthermore a smaller device is cheaper to package and distribute.
The whole “using the phone with one hand” is just par for the course of marketing driven talking points. After all if hand heldness (sic) is of such “priority” for apple, why would they have designed a device which sharpish edges which does not mold to a human hand whatsoever? But then again, Apple could not say it in public that their main reason for the small screen is that they could not optimize their supply chain until recently to make sure they can keep their profit margins stable selling larger screens. It does not have the same PR pizazz as some made up ergonomic bullshit (Apple being a manufacturer of products with have consistently displayed very dubious ergonomic qualities).
This is in no way endemic or exclusive to apple, any large consumer product corporation does similar crap to give their consumers the perception they so crave (actual reality being a secondary concern if at all). Apple is, however, exceedingly successful at it…
Sure the single handed use isn’t the only reason, but it definitely is a valid one. You’re really reaching with the idea that since the corners aren’t rounded that somehow makes it not suitable to be held. Ever heard anyone complain that the iPhone was digging into their hand? Nonsense.
Like I said, there is a good reason for making a smaller phone and there’s a good reason for making a bigger phone. Turns out the market prefers bigger phones overall. It’s just funny how people somehow feel personally offended when products change. Kind of like the bizarre obsession the political have with people changing their minds as if it was a bad thing.
The iPhone 4/5 is not any easier to use single handed than most of its competitors. In fact plenty of iOS gestures and GUI elements are not very “single hand” friendly. You can look aroud iOS users for pattern usage, and you will witness plenty of them using 2 hands when doing anything other than talking on the phone. Likewise, you can see plenty of people using larger competing devices with just one hand.
The one reaching is you, since that is not what I claimed.
Yes, tons of people actually. In fact that was/is one of the main complaints against the iPhone 4/5.
Edited 2014-09-10 00:30 UTC
Honestly, I still don’t want a giant phone, but that seems to be quickly becoming the only option when considering flagships.
I also don’t want a giant phone. My phone was long in the tooth and my wife’s was having battery issues that made me decide it was time to upgrade a couple of months ago. I was already hearing rumors that Apple was sourcing larger screens, and most of the android phones with quality internals were in larger phones than I wanted. So I ended up going with a 5s. I still like the size of my 4 better, but at least the software runs well on it. I hope that someone still makes a smaller phone by the time I need to upgrade again. I don’t want a big phone hanging off my belt, and the only part I see value in making bigger is the battery.
IIRC, Apple’s argument against the taller, larger screen was that it was more ergonomic and easier to reach the corners, which was difficult with the larger screens.
Of course, when they released the new iPhone with the larger screen, the TV advertisements showed how the new larger screen was the perfect size for the thumb to reach comfortably, and that is why they switched.
Apple will just call the new phone the iPad Micro with LTE capability – “a groundbreaking new concept” that “isn’t a phone…and isn’t a tablet”.
Meanwhile the 5s will get a new colour, be renamed the iPhone 6 Mini and will cost $100 more.
I have to agree with this analysis.
My personal story – started with my experience with Apple as a pig headed, stubborn entity that won’t listen to their customers or the market – concerning the lower cost tower Mac. Like the ole Power Mac G4.
Apple eliminated the low cost tower, and wouldn’t bring it back, so it was a bitter decision for me to finally abandon the towers and go with an iMac.
OK, so the last G4 tower came out in 2004, and the Dell Streak 5 – came out in 2010. So yes, I was a bitter babbling maniac for 6 years or so.
So when Apple looked like they were going into their denial mode in regards to larger screen phones – I said, I can’t go there with you.
Been there, done that, won’t waste my breath.
So I’ve been on the Android phone bandwagon for many years now, even though I am a big iOS fan, and I do own an iPad Mini Retina.
In the streak days people were crying that it was a big joke to hold a larger phone to your face, but I was having none of it. Screen real estate is a good thing, and fashion is what fashion leaders make of it.
p.s. dell blew it with the streak. But the reality was, the screen size was a solid concept, they just didn’t understand that people wanted to be on the latest version of Android – especially for a premium phone. That was an execution problem, but as we now know, the concept of a large screen phone was solid.
Edited 2014-09-09 08:28 UTC
I was basically forced to up the screensize of my phone against my wishes. Its basically really hard to find a phone that isnt a phablet these days.
Same logic follows the “death of qwerty”. Touchscreen is popular, but there are no longer any non blackberry qwerty phones out there so what choice do people have?
When my classic blackberry died a death I wanted a top line phone. A top line phone Meant a big screen, and there was no option of a qwerty device at the time, so ended up with a nokia 920.
Since then I have switched to my lovely Q10 with its qwerty and screen size im happy with. When upgrade time comes the Classic(Q20) and Passport are both bigger. There is no choice.
Jobs was an ideologue when it came to design. If he thought it didn’t look right and feel right he rejected it. He certainly didn’t let something like “public opinion” define design choices.
Cook by all accounts is more inclusive and pragmatic. So there you go, different sizes.
I happen to prefer the iPhone 5 form factor and but I know many people (mostly people who keep their phones in the inside pocket of a suit it seems) who prefer larger phones.
The “right size” for a handheld is determined by several factors:
1–user’s hand size, particularly comfortable thumb reach range
2–if device is intended for one hand or two-handed use
3–if device is intended for pants pocket storage or not
4–balance of the device (weight distribution). iPhones are almost always nearly perfectly balanced.
5–structural strength of the screen frame – no flexing or easy breaking
6–software must use the screen space fully & consistently
7–accuracy of color – big with bad color is worse for many than small with accurate colors
8–other screen specs — refresh rate, pixel size, color temp, ambient light adjustments
No surprise, I think Apple made the right move to wait on the phablet phones. With the iPad and iPad mini already dominant tablets, they didn’t need to confuse their product line with giant iPhones. My iPhone4 could use a little more screen space overall when I’m in heavy browsing sessions, but on all 8 above it performs perfectly. When I looked at the droid phablets last year I saw many compromises made to put that big of a screen on a “phone”.
My iPhone4 might have less screen “real estate” than your phone, but I can tell you on the 8 criteria above it’s nearly perfect:
–My thumb can run everything one handed, and it’s perfectly balanced with or w/o headphones plugged in.
–It lives comfortably in my jeans pocket for 4+ years now, banging pens, keys and other stuff.
–Even with the glass back it’s been very rugged, it’s solid enough to nearly be a weapon.
–The OS & Apps use every bit of space natively and don’t just up or downsize the UI.
–The resolution is beautiful (no pixels here), the colors are very accurate, and the brightness range is impressive.
–I even have free App that can change the overall color temperature based on time of day and ambient light, so in the morning it’s blueish light for accuracy and at night it gets “warmer” and easier to read with tired eyes.
It’s a perfect display on a nearly perfect device. Size isn’t everything. If it was we’d all lose our women to horses ;-).
Mean while, Im here enjoying my 6 inchs generic chinese phone. I can even read books with it.
Edited 2014-09-09 14:55 UTC
I’ve never ever lied about my own argument for a smaller screen size. As an individual, “pocketability” is a big deal and can be a total deal breaker. But I’ve also said that the 5″-6″ category is a valid segment for the consumer in general.
I think that Apple has spun to death what essentially amounted to making up for their lack of adaptive design elements in UIKit in the beginning. Later, the same arguments were used for what was merely an attempt to keep margins high through limiting the number of components in the supply chain.
Im about to downgrade from the LG optimus g to a blackberry 10 simply because of size. I got to use a z10 for work for while and I liked it. phones are getting to freaking big. but my wife wants a samsung mega.