Why I think there will be no bigger iPhone.

Posted by parv on March 19, 2013 10:55 pm 85

2001: iPod, portable music player.

iPod made it possible for people to take their whole music library with them in something that fits in your pocket. Compared to the other devices (CD and MP3 Players), iPod was very portable and that meant having your complete music collection with you, always.

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The (in my opinion revolutionary) click wheel allowed you to go through your whole music library by just rotating your thumb. You could hold iPod with one hand and find that one song in your entire music library. iPod was designed to be:

• Easy to take with you.
• Easy to hold in one hand.
• Easy to operate with one hand.

2007: iPhone, smartphone.

Apple makes a phone, a very important device in our lives. If you accidentally leave your phone at home for one day, you could miss (important) phone calls, e-mails, texts. and obviously, you won't be able to do these things yourself. The phone is a device people use and carry with them every day and because of that, the iPhone had to be very portable.

via i.imgur.com

The folks at Apple obviously think one handed use is very important and I strongly agree. The iPhone and the UI ware designed for one handed use. You always have one hand free when interacting with the device.

You could comfortably do x on your iPhone, while walking to y, holding z in your other hand.

So just like iPod, iPhone was designed to be:

• Easy to take with you.
• Easy to hold in one hand.
• Easy to operate with one hand.

Phones got big, very big.

Phones got bigger. Well, not all phones. Just the phones with good performance. If you want an iPhone alternative with good performance, you get a bigger phone. I could be wrong about this, but I think these phones aren't just big for the sake of being big. I think it's because they need room for components that could deliver performance to compete with the iPhone.

The manufacturers couldn't make a 3,5" screen phone that had competing performance, so they just made the devices bigger, forcing the user to use both hands or shifting the phone in the palm of their hand to reach parts of the screen.

Because all the iPhone alternatives were bigger, their size became a standard. This is now the normal size of a phone. A trend of big phones has started and people don't mind using both hands.

What about iPhones?

Even Apple couldn't make a 3,5" screen phone that pushed performance without making the device bigger, but they managed to put that performance and improved battery life in a package that is still smaller than the competition and I think this will also be the case with the next iPhone.

via i.imgur.com

They slightly increased the height of the iPhone, so you can still hold the device comfortably in one hand. This move made it clear that Apple still thinks one handed use is important and I'm very happy about that, but I have to be honest:

It's not working out perfect. Sometimes I find myself shifting the iPhone 5 in the palm of my hand. This never was the case with the iPhone 4S and I'm sure there are others that have the same experience.

Will Apple ever make an even bigger iPhone?

Well, right now when it comes to screen size you could say there two camps:

• Those who like big screens (and there are a lot of them!).
• Those who value one handed use.

A big screen is nice for tasks like viewing photos and videos, games, web browsing and other tasks that utilize the bigger screen. People might like big screens for these tasks or they just like the big screen. Either way, they are buying these phones!

Apple already has a device for the above mentioned tasks and that's iPad because they believe that different devices are for different tasks:

• iMac - Productivity and power.
• MacBook - Productivity and more portable than an iMac.
• iPad - Viewing photos and videos, games, web browsing, e-mail and books. More portable than a MacBook.
• iPhone - Making phone calls, shooting photos and videos, iPod, fast connectivity and "ultra-portable".

And that's why I think and hope Apple will not make a bigger iPhone.

via i.imgur.com

But wait?!

[little update - Cathexis made a great point about two sizes which made me think]

Right now we have 3 spots for the 3 iPhone models. Let's call these:

• "NEWGEN" - iPhone 5 > iPhone 5S > iPhone 6
• "LASTGEN" - iPhone 4S* > iPhone 5 > iPhone 5S
• "OLDGEN" - iPhone 4* > iPhone 4S* > iPhone 5

Apple could save a spot for a cheaper 3,5" iPhone* while keeping two spots for the 4" iPhones. This way Apple can offer choice between two sizes like they do for almost every product:

• iMac 21,5" and 27"
• MacBook Air 11" and 13"
• MacBook Pro 13" and 15"
• MacBook Pro retina 13" and 15"
• iPad 7,9 and 9,7"

And developers don't have to optimize their apps for a new screen.

Perhaps we haven't seen the last of that little 3,5" fellow.

Have a nice day, guys and gals!