How about we have 2 sizes. It works for tablets, let's do the same for phones and stop this endless pointless discussion. Many people like the current size (just look at the sales), some people prefer larger screens. So make 2 and satisfy both. Next.
Sales are for iPhone, not the 4" size.
2 phones maybe, but the 4" form factor will look as dated as iOS 6 once Apple can do a quality 4.5" phone. Then there's the crowd that don't want a phone AND an iPad and don't mind a huge phone if it doubles as an iPad. And yes, that could be the death of the iPad mini. Here's why…
This year could turn out to be very interesting for Apple. Having conceded on size for the iPad mini, the iPad Air has pretty much displaced any need for an iPad mini. Jobs was right, we just had to be patient. If you can make a full sized iPad light enough, there's no real need for a mini—except for a small 'it must fit in my purse' segment, who frankly, are buying large phones because they don't want 2 devices.
I don't, however, see making a larger iPhone in the same (we don't need the mini) light. We expect a lot more from out phones now. We do a lot more with our phones, now.
Original iPhone was a disruption in 2007, because nobody had made a smart phone that worked properly before. By today's standards, Original iPhone barely functioned as an internet/computing device. In 2014, things are very different—nobody wants to view a 'mobile site' on their phone, they just want the full featured site to work, and be readable.
In 2007, showing grandma a reasonable photo on your phone was a miracle. These days, if grandma doesn't already have a phone with a camera herself, she expects to be able to SEE the photo on the phone - clearly. (Why are your photos so small? Your less tech savvy relative has a nice big Android phone and everything is much "clearer".)
Remembering that design decisions are often made 2 years before sale of a device, Apple may have been able to stick their head in the sand in 2010 and think iPhone only needed to be 'larger' at 4", but when that phone made it to market in 2012, iPhone 5 was way behind customer expectations. Er, but feel how light it is?? Neat, eh?
2012/iPhone 5 should have been Schiller's moment of realisation that Apple was no longer "magical". And this is the REAL disappointment - it took another year and a Samsung ad/the tech-genius of the Wall St journal to wake him up!?? Dumb-old Samsung figured it out earlier than Apple and started banging the drum about leading expectations, even if the product wasn't much good, it could LOOK like it was good.
2012 should have been the wake-up call, and an emergency iPhone 6 (4.3" at least) should have been rushed ahead for 2013 to recapture the mindshare.
I'd love a 5" display (if the phone was no bigger than the display), but frankly 4.3" in the current form-factor would be an immense improvement on 4". I'd be happy with that, even in 2014. And that's the tragedy of Apple's folly—tiny increase in diagonal, massive increase in screen size, and Apple missed the opportunity to take size out of the equation. You hardly hear iPhone and flagship in the same sentence anymore.
4.7" would be a bigger improvement again, maybe even start looking gigantic, but would it be enough for the 'one device' folks?
I never gave much credence to the big & bigger iPhone 6 rumours, but I can see it now. I don't need a tablet-phone for my pocket, but I can understand the 'one device' people might want an even bigger phone. And the iPad Air pretty much made iPad mini obsolete, so there's room in the line for an even bigger phone…
Interesting times ahead.
