Note became instantly popular in Asia area and I always thought there are big market for big phones. I even argued with Jim on his G+ saying there are someone who genuinely likes it, they could not believe.
Yes, of course, the 4 inches iPhone is perfect. THERE IS NO OTHER SIZE COULD FIT BETTER IN HUMAN"S HAND. Right? Right?
How times change.
refs:
1 Why Apple should sidestep the ‘Phablet’: http://www.loopinsight.com/2013/03/12/why-apple-should-sides... 2 Samsung Galaxy Note and a Radio Flyer wagon: http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/02/08/samsung-galaxy-note-an... 3 Galaxy Note is so big it’s in a timezone of its own: http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/02/15/galaxy-note-is-so-big-... 4 Samsung’s Galaxy Note Is the Most Useless Phone Jonathan Geller Has Ever Used: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/02/15/geller-galaxy-no... 5 Samsung’s Super-Sized Galaxy Note: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/02/15/techblock-galaxy...
> There is no argument that some people really do like these big
> closer-to-5-than-4-inch Android and Windows phones. I was in a
> Verizon retail store yesterday (long story; don’t ask) and
> overheard a relatively small woman buying a Galaxy S III. A
> companion asked if she wasn’t worried that it was too big, and she
> said no, big was exactly what she wanted, because she doesn’t have
> a tablet and wanted to do a lot of reading on whatever phone she
> got. She even said she was thinking about the 5-inch Galaxy Note
> (which Verizon doesn’t carry). It was like a conversation out of a
> Samsung commercial. Such people surely think the iPhone 5’s
> display remains too small. But, trust me, there are going to be
> many long-time iPhone users complaining that it’s too big after
> they upgrade.
>
> In an ideal world, perhaps Apple would offer two iPhone sizes --
> like they do with products such as MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and
> iMacs. A smaller one with the classic 3.5-inch display, and a
> larger (say, 4.5-inch?) one for people who want that.
That holds up pretty well, but I undershot the two sizes by an inch apiece.
Also, I haven't said whether I think a 5.5-inch iPhone is actually any good, because, duh, I haven't even seen one yet, let alone used one.
On his 3g (or maybe 3gs?) you could hold it one handed and reliably reach the whole screen with your thumb. One the iPhone 5's larger screen that's no longer true.
Apple's certainly aware of this problem, so even if they launch a bigger screened version I can't imagine they'll dropping the form factor of the 5s any time soon. But I'm curious to see how they'll market it.
Limiting iPhones to a single size has always let them control the touchscreen experience, but they'll have a lot of people buying phones with a worse experience because they don't think about the downsides of a larger screen.
Apple's always made it their business to make as many design decisions as possible for their users, and it's worked out well for their OSes and devices. I'm betting some people there aren't happy about giving this one up.
Next to them sat the occasional iPhone owner who was doing basic Facebook duty or playing simple games. I'm sure Apple is feeling a lot of pressure in Asia to move to a bigger screen.
Before Korea, last week I was in Japan, and didn't see this large of a percentage of big screen phones, but I saw lots of iPad minis out on the train and elsewhere while phones were safely kept in pocket. I think once people get a taste of a larger screen its hard to go back to the tiny 4" world. Sadly, this exposes the cult of personality Apple enthusiasts often partake of. 4" was perfect because Jobs and some psuedoscience said so. Now its not. I'm getting a little sick of these loudmouth guys who think perfection is achievable. Popular technology has a lot more in common with fashion than engineering. Wish these guys understood this and stopped putting their foot in their mouths, not that this is going to hurt Gruber's ad impressions. Being a dramatic soapbox-like loudmouth seems to be very profitable for bloggers. Why do we always gravitate to the Perez Hilton's of the tech world instead of more informed and moderate voices? Is fandom always irrational and will always reward those who know how to play the lowest common denominator?
So I just got a Note and it's possibly one of the most liberating personal electronic devices I've gotten since my first smart phone. The Samsung software sucks as usual, but once you get things set up (taking all of half an hour) it's easily the best mobile device on the market right now.
But 4" is too small if it is the only device you have, if you use your device both as your mobile and as a PC or tablet. This has been Apple's blind spot, exacerbated by their focus on higher income customers who can afford multiple devices.
Much of the rest of the world cannot afford multiple expensive devices.
Much of today's youth are mobile only by choice. Since they text rather than make calls, and almost always have headphones with them, the awkwardness of putting a large device to their ear is a non-issue.
(I have seen other 5.5-inch phones, though, and none seem like something I'd want to carry in my pocket everywhere.)
These were gadget happy geeks on IRC mind you. There are also the famous Slashdot iPod comments. Once the apple fans have gotten used to the larger screens they will think it was the way Jobs intended.
This can be seen again and again in everything from politics to religion .. to tech (which is not far from either nowadays, right?).
His function in the technology news media is almost exactly like a political pundit, he sets the talking points and they'll reverberate around the Apple-sphere for years even they've long stopped making any kind of sense.
I didn't flag this one because for what it's worth, it's a decent approach and analysis and technically possible.
What's not said here is of course the denouncement that he's now obliged to make against the larger format phone (after towing the line for so many years that bigger phones are the worst thing since the last mass extinction event) and the writeup about how this entire kind of analysis is necessary because of weaknesses in Apple's approach to handling different screen size and resolutions that only now being solved.
They were not defending small screen. They were basically saying big screen is useless, stupid, and bad fit for your hand if you are normal human.
Oh well.
Business-wise, large screens make a lot of sense. Most people want them. They're great for people with poor eyesight, especially older people who won't admit they need bifocals. Women usually carry purses, so comfortably fitting in a small pocket isn't an issue. And of course, larger screens look better side-by-side. A lot of consumers are enticed by the immediate appeal of a larger screen. They forget they'll have to lug around a heavier phone that is harder to hold.
I've looked around, but I haven't been able to find any smartphone that's as small as an iPod Nano. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.
1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IPod_Nano_4G_black_c...
Besides the fact that 1080p is common and marketable, it would be the perfect resolution to mirror to an AppleTV.
And having both the 4.7 & 5.5 phones be @3x would motivate developers more to add @3x assets. If the 5.5 phone is the only @3x device in Apple's lineup for a while, it might be tempting not to invest.
And then a 4K (3840x2160) at @3x might be perfect for a 12.x inch iPad. That would mirror perfectly to 1080p or 4K TVs. It would be 16x9, which is hard to imagine, but mirroring to projectors might be more important for a 12" iPad than the smaller ones? I could really see it used in presentations and education.
I say go with the standard resolutions when in doubt, even though there is no real Apple precedent.
(edit to add content)
To be fair, I don't have that much actual experience with larger phones, but I did switch to a Galaxy S4 for a few weeks last year, and while it wasn't completely unusable one handed or anything, the unwieldiness of doing so was one of the things that made me happy to get my iPhone back. But it looks like I'll soon be left behind if I want to continue using iOS...
I've argued with a somewhat prominent advocate of certain touch behaviors, but it simply makes far more sense that interactive elements be ordered by priority from the bottom of the screen where they are most accessible by one handed users.
Part of it is that Android just isn't designed for one-handed use, but the limited width is a big part of it too.
I don't think I want a larger phone, but I can understand why Apple might make them.
Another advantage: not needing one more target resolution of the resources. And another: no need for the new scale for the pixel masks by production.
1564 × 880 is feasible for a 5.5-inch phone.
That’s what you get if you maintain the 326
pixels-per-inch density and @2x scale. This
would increase area — the number of points
displayed on screen — by a whopping 89 percent.
But it wouldn’t increase the size of what you
see at all. I think the sweet spot for a
5.5-inch phone requires you see to more content
and to make what you see at least a little bit
bigger. So that’s why I’d bet against 1564 × 880.
(1564 × 880 would be implausible for the 4.7-inch
phone: it would render UI elements and text 15
percent smaller than all previous iPhones.)Even if the phones are 1.457x or whatever, I bet iOS8 will just do its best to scale elements as needed- Since the resolutions are so high already, a scaling error of a fraction of a retina pixel is totally not noticeable.
Wat?
For a photo it can be acceptable. Not great, but acceptable. For UI elements, it is horrible. Smudgy, blurry edge makes no one happy.