Apple Acknowledges Consumers Want Larger and Cheaper Phones

[Toltepeceno]

Frankly, I don't think a lot of women want a phone bigger than their palm. You may wear cargo pants, but a lot of women's clothing barely have pockets big enough for their keys.

I'm with you. Not sure what Toltepeceno uses his other hand for most of the time, but I'm usually using mine to drive, or carry something. The 5 is already challenging to navigate the Music and Podcast apps while driving because half the controls are at the top and half at the bottom.

Cargo pants? My normal pockets are normal pants and at least 6" across. That's not close to the 2" iphone I have. You must be weaaring kiddie pants.

Driving while playing with the phone? Texting I'm sure. I hope you don't kill someone, that should be done with the phone in a mount. More like you are watching porn with one hand.

 

[Analog Kid]

I have come to a deep hate for the word "innovation". Barely anyone uses it correctly. Apple as innovators? Not really, they did not invent the phone, cell phone, smart phone, computer, etc. Apple as perfectionists? Yes. They perfected smartphones and changed them in a perfect way and improved them greatly. Whether perfectionism = innovation I do not know but I'm tired of hearing people complain about whether something is "innovative" or not.

I think you're confusing "innovate" with "invent", and I think most people misunderstand invention.

Innovation is defined in my dictionary as "make changes in something established" which I think describes what Apple does quite nicely. The Latin root is "innovat" which means "renewed" or "altered".

Invention is defined, again in my dictionary, as "create or design (something that has not existed before)". The Latin root "invent" means "contrive" or "discover".


Nobody really "invented" any of the items you list-- they were all a series of evolutionary steps on technologies that preceded them. You'd be hard pressed to point to when the computer became the computer-- the name itself was a job description for a person who did repetitive calculations. Over time we mechanized more and more of that job until it became almost entirely automated and we now refer to that machine as a computer-- which we, for some reason, distinguish from a smartphone based on form factor.

Invention is a micro, not a macro process. Our romantic notions of Edison and the Wright Brothers are only sustained because we've forgotten the state of the art they began from and because their engineering talent was closely matched by their skills of self promotion.

So if you require that someone create a new technological product line from whole cloth, you're going to have a very short list of heroes.

 

[thekev]

Take it easy my friend, have a cup of coffee and move on... I don't have enough hours in the day to fine-pick apart stranger's comments - I've moved on, and hey - does it matter?


Have a good day!

Fine you aren't interested in typing a real response. I get it, but you're awfully condescending (referring to earlier posts) for someone who hasn't contributed any real information.

 

[tdale]

Before Apple who had:

* magnetic connector for laptop power connectors
* all aluminum chassis for laptops & PCs
* ultra-thin laptops with no optical or spin-drive(Macbook Air)
* a touch-only device that worked(iPhone)
* fingerprint sensor that worked properly(TouchID)
* 64-bit ARM processor in a shipping product
* the 2013 Mac Pro

no matter which way you slice it Apple is a leader, innovator and not a follower in any sense of the word. They might not invent a technology, but they will be the first to apply it a meaningful way for normal people which is in itself an innovation when you consider the state of the tech industry prior to 2007.

I dont disagree. But, when others invent or create or innovate something cool, Apple won't use it. I think your list of Before Apple stuff is a bit odd. Magsafe is nice isnt really that big a deal, same woth ALU chassis. Ultra thin the same. All nice touches, nothing more. Touch IS isnt reliable for many and has known bugs. is the iPhone the only touch device that worked? 64 bit is fine oif they made 64 bit apps or had enough memory to use them. Macpro??? How can anyone make one if Apple dont licence it?? Off course before Apple there wasnt one. Your not suggetsing that you cannot buy a Windows based high end PC??

 

[penter]

When did people ever call Apple an innovator?

How about revolutionizing the world as we know it with the invention of the first PC, as OS, as we know it?

Or how about revolutionizing the motion picture industry, with Pixar?

Or the music industry with the iPod & iTunes?

Or the mobile industry, with the iPhone.
How about the tablet industry, with the iPad?

How about the concept of the "ecosystem" with Mac OS, iOS, the App store (generating an entire economy bog it's own), iLife, iWork, iCloud, etc?

What about media distribution, with it's "side-project," the Apple TV?

Sadly, with Mr. Jobs gone, I personally think the new revolution will be in Elon Musk's hand.

 

[fertilized-egg]

I haven't tried to reach the corners. There's nothing in the corners that I need. I will give it a try next time I have it in hand though.

It doesn't even have to be the far corner. Even with a 4" screen I had hard time reaching the top bar for notification after pushing the home button without repositioning my hand. With my larger phones, it was impossible without sliding the phone up and down in my palm. I settled with a 3.8" screen after numerous phones for this very reason.

 

[penplotter]

Fine you aren't interested in typing a real response. I get it, but you're awfully condescending (referring to earlier posts) for someone who hasn't contributed any real information.

It's 03:23am - I have slightly more desirable ways of passing the night than feeling the need to "prove" my points to a stranger.

Consider the possibility that maybe you're a little hyper-sensitive? I do not "owe" you a response, but have a lovely day, seriously

 

[IniDyne]

Give the customers the opposite if what they want. Brilliant!!!!!

Re-iterating for the slow minded. When asked why Apple didn't let market research drive their strategy, Steve Jobs replied "the customers do not know what they want". Not my words, Steve Jobs. Go read his biography.

When u were pressing buttons on your sidekick did you know what u really wanted was a multitouch screen which would be a phone, mp3 player, ebook reader, web browser, games system and gps?

But then again, thats probably why youre not the next Steve Jobs. And neither is Cook nor ives.

 

[Nahaz]

I personally just like using one hand to do everything on my iPhone 5.

It's an over exaggerated issue for 95% of circumstances, and screen coverage.

I have a Galaxy S4 and a Lumia 920 and my hands are considered "Normal Size" for a man. I admit it's a bit of a stretch to reach the top left, but considering most people who use the phone in one hand text, then texting is quite easy. It would be even easier with a Swype style application.

 

[dannyyankou]

Breaking news: MacRumors fanboys still won't acknowledge this.

Breaking news: choice is good, give us both.

 

[wiz329]

I think we're beginning to see the era where Apple is no longer an innovator, but a mere competitor...

Oh, please. Just because they acknowledge that customer preference EXISTS in the first place?

I'm going to call BS on that one.

In the last 5 years Apple has been the first to pioneer:
- "Ultrabooks"
- Tablets
- HiDPI displays (both smartphones and laptops)
- high bandwidth/hub connection technology (Thunderbolt. See competition -- DockPort.)
- PCIe flash storage. (Not invented by them, naturally, but they are pushing market adoption in laptops. Even before a connector actually existed. Yes, SataE, I'm talking about you.)
- fingerprint/biometric integration (Again, Apple wasn't the first, but they were the first to do it successfully.)
- new ultraportable, modular workstation design.

Please. Apple continues to push the envelope in technology.

 

[penplotter]

Re-iterating for the slow minded. When asked why Apple didn't let market research drive their strategy, Steve Jobs replied "the customers do not know what they want". Not my words, Steve Jobs. Go read his biography.

When u were pressing buttons on your sidekick did you know what u really wanted was a multitouch screen which would be a phone, mp3 player, ebook reader, web browser, games system and gps?

But then again, thats probably why youre not the next Steve Jobs. And neither is Cook nor ives.

Wow, I'd take you for a beer - you seem to be THE ONLY rational person I have seen commenting for over 3 days.

Customers DO NOT know what they want; this is a fact. Apple know things now about their future products, that they KNOW people will (very probably) rave about ONCE they know about them, in years to come.

By the way - Jony Ive is not Jony "Ives", and if you're going to hold Steve Jobs up as a shining example of product concepts, you'd better add Jony Ive to that collective too - I am DEFINITE that Steve Jobs would want that - he's not just "some bloke who works at Apple" - maybe you should do some Jony Ive reading too, if you haven't?

I'm sure this place used to be FULL of people who loved Apple products - now it's a free for all for any idiot who wants to spout his "informed opinion" about X, Y or X.

Bleh.

 

[wiz329]

Re-iterating for the slow minded. When asked why Apple didn't let market research drive their strategy, Steve Jobs replied "the customers do not know what they want". Not my words, Steve Jobs. Go read his biography.

When u were pressing buttons on your sidekick did you know what u really wanted was a multitouch screen which would be a phone, mp3 player, ebook reader, web browser, games system and gps?

But then again, thats probably why youre not the next Steve Jobs. And neither is Cook nor ives.

But there's a difference between being a visionary, and being unable to correct course. Usually being a visionary involves new products and definitions, not existing ones. Steve was referring to new types of products and functionality.

In this case, the market is much more mature, and both small and large displays exist. Many consumers want larger displays. Apple doesn't offer larger displays. Two and two make four.

Don't try to tell people, "No you don't actually like the larger display you're using better, I PROMISE." That's just stupidity.

----------

Wow, I'd take you for a beer - you seem to be THE ONLY rational person I have seen commenting for over 3 days.

Customers DO NOT know what they want; this is a fact. Apple know things now about their future products, that they KNOW people will (very probably) rave about ONCE they know about them, in years to come.

By the way - Jony Ive is not Jony "Ives", and if you're going to hold Steve Jobs up as a shining example of product concepts, you'd better add Jony Ive to that collective too - I am DEFINITE that Steve Jobs would want that - he's not just "some bloke who works at Apple" - maybe you should do some Jony Ive reading too, if you haven't?

I'm sure this place used to be FULL of people who loved Apple products - now it's a free for all for any idiot who wants to spout his "informed opinion" about X, Y or X.

Bleh.

Difference is between future products and categories, and existing ones.

It's stupid for anyone (Apple, Steve Jobs, or anyone else for that matter) to tell out of two current choices, the consumer is WRONG about his preference.

Steve's genius was in inventing entirely new categories, not convincing people that an existing one that they like is actually inferior to another existing one.

 

[thekev]

SATA was replaced by an internal PCIe disk, Thunderbolt is many times faster than SATA3, SATA Express is a direct response to new and faster SSD disks that chokes on SATA3, SATA Express is PCIe.

Sorry I missed this response before. Anyway yeah I commented on that. I mixed up the terms PCI-Express (same thing as PCIe) and SATA express.

With dual GPUs as standard they would limit themselves to two internal slots, so yeah that's fixed number.

That's a reasonable point, although I was responding to someone who claimed they were limited to the internal bays. Thunderbolt hasn't yet come up with a comparable number of strong options when it comes to things such as DAS. I hope that changes in the future.

 

[tdale]

But there's a difference between being a visionary, and being unable to correct course. Usually being a visionary involves new products and definitions, not existing ones. Steve was referring to new types of products and functionality.

In this case, the market is much more mature, and both small and large displays exist. Many consumers want larger displays. Apple doesn't offer larger displays. Two and two make four.

Don't try to tell people, "No you don't actually like the larger display you're using better, I PROMISE." That's just stupidity.

----------



Difference is between future products and categories, and existing ones.

It's stupid for anyone (Apple, Steve Jobs, or anyone else for that matter) to tell out of two current choices, the consumer is WRONG about his preference.

Steve's genius was in inventing entirely new categories, not convincing people that an existing one that they like is actually inferior to another existing one.

+1

No, +2

A NEW product type, the public doesn't know about it, how could they as it didn't exist. The designers do, as they have had it in their heads, on design tables, on prototypes for years. Once it is out, released, in use, the fine tuning is done by the USERS. They USE it they PAY for it, they KNOW what they want.

 

[akbarali.ch]

Ignorance is the worst enemy, i like the fact that they are not ignorant of whats going around.

By making larger screens is not like copying Android, it will be like copying themselves. iPhone in 2007 had the largest screen of any other smartphone just because it was capable of doing a lot of stuff. Now, 2014, the possible uses of the smartphone are much much more than what it was in 2007, so they need to increase the size again.

And, i dont think they need to make cheaper iphones, hell no.

Also, i dont think larger iphone would cost more, i mean look at ipad mini retina, it has all the components as in the iphone, same 326 ppi as in iphone 5S (or 4, 4S & 5C) but they can make it cheaper.

 

[Above The Gods]

I think you're confusing "innovate" with "invent", and I think most people misunderstand invention.

Innovation is defined in my dictionary as "make changes in something established" which I think describes what Apple does quite nicely. The Latin root is "innovat" which means "renewed" or "altered".

Invention is defined, again in my dictionary, as "create or design (something that has not existed before)". The Latin root "invent" means "contrive" or "discover".


Nobody really "invented" any of the items you list-- they were all a series of evolutionary steps on technologies that preceded them. You'd be hard pressed to point to when the computer became the computer-- the name itself was a job description for a person who did repetitive calculations. Over time we mechanized more and more of that job until it became almost entirely automated and we now refer to that machine as a computer-- which we, for some reason, distinguish from a smartphone based on form factor.

Invention is a micro, not a macro process. Our romantic notions of Edison and the Wright Brothers are only sustained because we've forgotten the state of the art they began from and because their engineering talent was closely matched by their skills of self promotion.

So if you're require that someone create a new technological product line from whole cloth, you're going to have a very short list of heroes.

Exactly. I've had several discussions about that on this very site alone. Apple is a highly innovative company. But innovation != invention. No one claimed they "invented the smartphone" (Simm95).

 

[PadreQuevedo]

All I care now is:

• Wireless charging
• Big batteries
• Big screen but not bigger than my Note 3
• SD Card expansion

I don't think we will ever see wireless charging capability or SD card expansion on iPhones. So for me iPhones are dead.
Apple is making the same mistake Sony did decades ago putting the Walkman brand in the trash bin.

 

[wiz329]

Also, i dont think larger iphone would cost more, i mean look at ipad mini retina, it has all the components as in the iphone, same 326 ppi as in iphone 5S (or 4, 4S & 5C) but they can make it cheaper.

I think your example disproves the point you're trying to make.

A comparison between ipad mini retina and iphone isn't exactly doable. iPad Mini doesn't have GPS/cellular technology, you can't use it as a phone etc. Additionally, the design process is entirely different.

A better comparison would be iPad vs. iPad mini, as they have more similar functionality, materials, and manufacturing processes. And yes, iPad is more expensive.

 

[tomsamson]

I find it refreshing that such documents are unveiled.

Yes, sure Apple does market research, like any other company.

In Apple's case its much more interesting though when such documents get uncovered.
Mainly because Apple goes out on stage and presents itself as if they are the only ones innovating, everyone else is just copycats and Apple is so much more innovative, great and just doing better than all of the others together.

While in reality, they made some great products with the first few iPhones and iPads, but really, when one looks at it without tinted glasses, they fell behind more and more on more and more ends in the last few years.

They still make the largest profits per device, and they add their 1-2 cool new own features per device, so as long as they sell in good enough quantities, sure, Apple does great financially.

But when one looks closer, one can see Android and others grabbing more and more market share, there are just way more of the other devices sold than Apple ones.

I like Apple when they release great innovative stuff i want to buy, i don't like Apple when they release samy stuff with slight speed bumps for several years and then act like they are the most innovative of all and all others just copycats, while really most of their last few OS "upgrades" have been mixture copies of web OS, windows phone and Android (Next to on top running worse and worse) .
Not even to talk about Apple getting most of its parts from other companies they blame as being the copycats.
And yeah, coming out suing others for being copycats, while copying the others just as much if not more on both hardware and software side, is just not cool to me.
Yeah, the small tablet was nonsense, what, it sells great? ok, we gotta make one..
The large phone is nonsense..what, it sells great?...
oh, the others got notifications like this and multitasking like that, quick, implement that!

So its funny in a way to see such obvious truths unveiled and see, yup, their internal research shows pretty much the opposite of what they say on stage on many ends, kinda funny =)

I wish the patent and trademark system would be changed, but hey, as long as that's not the case and those companies are doing one such stupid lawsuit after the other, this is some of what they and we get in return =)
Some of the truths they'd like to keep in secret being unveiled one by one.
Dunno if its really worth it for Apple to do these lawsuits, to me (compared to the cash they have) its about small sums and really, they hurt their reputation way more than they could buy with money.

Its like they are putting cracks into their own reality distortion field.

 

[Above The Gods]

All I care now is:

• Wireless charging
• Big batteries
• Big screen but not bigger than my Note 3
• SD Card expansion

I don't think we will ever see wireless charging capability or SD card expansion on iPhones. So for me iPhones are dead.
Apple is making the same mistake Sony did decades ago putting the Walkman brand in the trash bin.

Recent wireless charging patent:http://bgr.com/2014/02/04/apple-smart-wireless-charging-dock/

 

[penplotter]

+1

No, +2

A NEW product type, the public doesn't know about it, how could they as it didn't exist. The designers do, as they have had it in their heads, on design tables, on prototypes for years. Once it is out, released, in use, the fine tuning is done by the USERS. They USE it they PAY for it, they KNOW what they want.

Such a radical notion you speak of - do you not realise that most people on MR are only willing to rationalise and discuss the SEEN products that they know of? Don't confuse the internet with rationale - that's incomprehensible to people - they just click a website link, then click a few more, and if the all-knowing Google doesn't mention it, it therefore "doesn't exist", and they can't fathom that things ALSO come IN THE FUTURE - careful, you're going to make many folk's heads explode with all this simple logic and common sense

People buy ANY old junk; thankfully, Apple products are not junk.

 

[Above The Gods]

I think your example disproves the point you're trying to make.

A comparison between ipad mini retina and iphone isn't exactly doable. iPad Mini doesn't have GPS/cellular technology, you can't use it as a phone etc. Additionally, the design process is entirely different.

A better comparison would be iPad vs. iPad mini, as they have more similar functionality, materials, and manufacturing processes. And yes, iPad is more expensive.

Rumor has it that the larger iPhone with a sapphire screen would cost $300 on contract.

 

[linuxcooldude]

Google makes plenty of things that are new.

And Samsung is definitely innovating. Don't believe me? Read this http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-gr...-wonder-material-from-the-lab-to-your-pocket/

Samsung is know for making great electronic components. But making them into a finished product may be a different story.

 

[AppleScruff1]

There is no way you can navigate a large phone like that with one-hand like you could a 3.5" iPhone. Laws of anatomy.

If you change the way you hold it compared to the iPhone, you can still cover a lot of the screen with one hand.