iPhone 6 Interest Remains Strong as Consumers Look to Larger Displays

[Alumeenium]

I want a SMALLER phone

two lines of Apps with a Dock

three columns

iPhone Nano please!!!

fast chip, I don't care about movies on my phone or games

I need Text and Calls, just like 90% of the rest of the world

 

[639051]

I want a SMALLER phone

two lines of Apps with a Dock

three columns

iPhone Nano please!!!

fast chip, I don't care about movies on my phone or games

I need Text and Calls, just like 90% of the rest of the world

Image

If you want to talk need .. you don't "need" any of those things. 90% of the rest of the world may not "need" all the other things, but they want them. Apple isn't going to make the device, might as well stop hoping.

 

[NY Guitarist]

I picture those that like 3.5" and 4" phones as having 19" square tv's in their houses.

Have you considered that there are those who don't need their phone to replace their large screen multimedia systems and/or computer in their homes?

Having said that, it seems the large screen is related to the trend toward mobile devices becoming an individual's primary computer.

 

[john123]

Why do people always ask this question knowing that out of billions of people in the world, they can't be the ONLY person who doesn't want something.

It's called "rhetorical effect."

 

[dejo]

It's utterly amazing, how, yet again, Apple fans totally 180 degree change their mind from hating and not wanting something to shouting, I want it, I want it.

Care to cite specific examples of more than a handful of Apple fans here who have done this 180? Otherwise, you are just conflating two separate groups.

 

[manyminis]

Screen size doesn't really matter to me

Am I the only person who does NOT want a bigger screen? Sheesh.

I want longer battery life and more memory (like 128GB) and camera improvements. I'll only go for the bigger screen if it is not unwieldy.

 

[512ke]

It's funny how back in the day, the cool status thing for iPods was to make them SMALLER and SMALLER.

And now the status item is going to be phones that are BIGGER and BIGGER.

The key thing is that the product is visually DIFFERENT, so the world will know, I GOT THE NEW ONE!

Sticking with my 4S until it absolutely will not do the job.

 

[NY Guitarist]

I want longer battery life and more memory (like 128GB) and camera improvements. I'll only go for the bigger screen if it is not unwieldy.

Same for me. Maybe I don't feel the need for a larger screen is because I have multiple devices and tend to use the phone for the convenience of its portability.

 

[SMIDG3T]

I think a lot of iPhone fans will finally discover what many other Android/WP users have long known:

1) Larger screens rock for everything. Email, games, browsing, video playback, reading, typing... etc. The list can go on and on. The benefits are great.

2) Using larger screen devices with one hand is not impossible, and in fact, quite manageable. You'll learn to adjust. Those that used to claim it's impossible will eat their words when they learn just how quickly they'll adjust.

3) Larger devices can still fit in pockets. Of course, the larger you go, the harder it'll be, but again, people will adjust.

4) There is no "perfect size" -- choice will be great. I do hope Apple continues offering a 4" option, though, for those who want to stay there. And ideally, a next-generation 4" option (not just the previous generation's 5S or anything). If not, people will just have to adopt to the trends if they want the latest.


Very much looking forward to the new iPhones.

Agree with all your points apart from number 2.

If you have small hands and you can't reach the top-right of the screen (left-handed user here) there's no way you'll adjust if you simply can't reach there!

 

[tbrinkma]

Am I the only person who does NOT want a bigger screen? Sheesh.

Nope. The survey options simply didn't have an option for iPhone 6 with 4.0" screen. It asked:

Do you want:
1) a new, more powerful phone with a big screen
2) a new, more powerful phone with an even bigger screen
3) the current phone
4) last-year's model

Notably lacking was the option for:
5) a new, more powerful phone with the same size screen

 

[arefbe]

I swear, if people are getting paid for this kind of "analysis," where do I sign up?

Exactly. This is news?

 

[foodog]

Am I the only person who does NOT want a bigger screen? Sheesh.

Pretty sure they will continue to have a 4" model available as the entry level model.

 

[elev8d]

This is news? After Apple has refused to acknowledge consumer preferences and industry trends for years, suddenly out of the clear blue they wake up and decide to build something relevant. How hilarious.

I'm pretty sure it was in the cards since well before the iPhone 5 upgrade. The real question is how will they differentiate iPhone 7 enough to warrant a huge wave of upgrades that they are going to get with this cycle.

 

[Serban]

i hope in late 2016 we will not have to choose between the small 5.5" and the big 6" iphones. I hope for a limit of the dimension, so we have not to change our clothes with hip hop style pockets or being obligate to care a bag with us where to fit our phablets

 

[elev8d]

Nope. The survey options simply didn't have an option for iPhone 6 with 4.0" screen. It asked:

Do you want:
1) a new, more powerful phone with a big screen
2) a new, more powerful phone with an even bigger screen
3) the current phone
4) last-year's model

Notably lacking was the option for:
5) a new, more powerful phone with the same size screen

Yeah, I'm going to say the survey wasn't made by researchers.

 

[angevil]

Want 3,5 inch

I want to buy 3,5 inch iPhone again! It is not because I like small screens, it is because I like small phones! If I want a bigger screen, I could get another device for that, like a tablet. Big screens are great, but it all depends on which device and how are you going to use it. So, yes, I want an iPhone ″nano″ or ″micro″ with 3,5 inch screen, please.

 

[firewood]

I picture those that like 3.5" and 4" phones as having 19" square tv's in their houses.

Think smaller. A lot of people are now watching TV shows on 9" iPads instead of 19" to 40" sets.

Before smartphones, the expensive and most sexy mobiles were the smallest ones. I expect the pendulum will eventually swing back in that direction, and being seen with a big phablet will start to appear low class, like carrying a full-sized boom box on your shoulder instead of using a discrete iPod with Beats plugs.

 

[Piggie]

Care to cite specific examples of more than a handful of Apple fans here who have done this 180? Otherwise, you are just conflating two separate groups.

I can't be bothered to trawl back thru hundreds of posting and there is no need to either.

We all know it, as you do also, these forums were full of people saying the current size is perfect and rubbished someone like Samsung for making larger screen phones.

Exactly in the same way as people here rubbished a smaller iPad before Apple made it.

Now people are saying Apple with never make an uneven bezel and it would look horrid. However if they do, again, we will see that idea, then deemed an act of brilliance.

 

[larrybeo]

It seems fitting that only 25% of people actually want a bigger display than 4.7. For me to consider an iPhone again (after having 3 models over a 6 year period I now own a far superior product) they would have to drastically improve the "retina" screen as well. My Windows Phone Lumia 925 has a 4.5 inch screen, but it is in HD unlike iPhones. Other phones are able to reproduce the full color gamut instead of the 60% that the iPhone is able to produce, which makes the screen much more crisp and vivid. When you couple these hardware fatalities with the sluggish static user interface that is iOS, it doesn't seem likely that Apple will be able to prevent their iPhone base from dwindling away further unless they do a few more "shocking" things to keep up with their competitors.

 

[Michael Scrip]

It's funny how back in the day, the cool status thing for iPods was to make them SMALLER and SMALLER.

And now the status item is going to be phones that are BIGGER and BIGGER.

You're not the first person to say this.

Inevitably someone in this thread will post a picture of the old Motorola DynaTAC "Zack Morris" phone and wonder why we are going back to "giant" cell phones.

When cell phones were nothing more than a speaker and a microphone... you could make them small and they would still work.

But now that cell phones have gorgeous LCD screen that do more than make and receive calls... some people like bigger screens.

 

[Crosscreek]

Think smaller. A lot of people are now watching TV shows on 9" iPads instead of 19" to 40" sets.

Before smartphones, the expensive and most sexy mobiles were the smallest ones. I expect the pendulum will eventually swing back in that direction, and being seen with a big phablet will start to appear low class, like carrying a full-sized boom box on your shoulder instead of using a discrete iPod with Beats plugs.

Yep, I was thinking that the other day. I remember when the Boom Box was all the rage.

 

[iamPro]

Funny how "time changes" and "how people use their phone changes" right in line with the likelihood of changes with Apple's releases. Either Apple is completely amazing of knowing exactly when to change models to stay right with those changing times or that's just a great default to overcome 500 old posts calling anything bigger than 3.5" (and later a 4") an abomination, "99.9% don't need big-screened phablets" etc.

In any event, it's some great spin. Rather than finding fault with Apple for not having changed with the times several years ago- and thus giving a lot of that bigger-screen business to rivals like Samsung- we simply spin this so that it seems like the overall landscape is shifting and "our" needs are shifting with it.

Sprinkle in a few "wait & see" comments, seg into "it's starting to grow on me" and then when accumulating rumors become reality at the launch ("now that I've got to actually see one"), it's "shut up and take my money" and "I'm already in line". All that negative "anything bigger than 4" is <negative descriptor> just evaporates. Once rumor becomes reality, Apple's choices are the new perfect and anything different than those choices are the new "stupid" and "abominations."

Personally, I like Apple stuff just fine but I'm deep in the "long past due" camp with this one. And after years of seeing overwhelming bashing of anything bigger than 3.5" and then 4" as "abominations", "stupid", "99.9% of phone buyers don't want", "need new pants" etc, I find it hilarious to see so many of the very same crowd seemingly accepting of the larger sizes, looking forward to adopting those abominations, not seeing them as "stupid" and apparently finding themselves in that .1%.

Most concerning though: I don't see the pants makers responding to the massive wave of demand for new pants with bigger pockets; instead, the same old pants with the same old pockets seem to still be on store shelves. Whatever are we going to do?

No, I definitely agree that Apple is late to respond to the trend.
However, the size wars on the Anrdoid side was premature as well. They had little to differentiate themselves from one another in the early days. Hence the flood of clumsy Custom skins and the bigger is better craze. It worked out for Android in the long run, and Apple honestly was happily raking in money regardless of screen size, and their users were genuinely happy with their phones. So, at best, its unclear when in time a bigger phone was actually "better". And that point of "time" and idea of being "better" is very subjective and relevant (clearly so, as evidenced by the currently existing and very vocal opposition in the apple forums).

So, Apple releasing larger screens now makes "sense" for Apple and its users who are more accustomed to the smaller screen (although, some by lack of choice, yet stuck with Apple as they considered the benefits outweighed a larger screen and having to switch). Apple and to some degree its users, the need for a larger screen was relatively less urgent due to many factors. Whereas, its different for people with Android where they were somewhat forced to use larger phones "prematurely" yet, nowadays, fully experience its benefits with an abundance of choices.

So, the argument really works both ways and there is no clear trend setter or company who got it "right" IMO. Apple was right when SJ said 3.5" is the perfect size. A screen getting larger was only a matter of time (as with most tech), nudged by the advance in technology and subsequent change in use patterns. However, it wasn't when Apple released the early generations of the iPhone. Android jumped in the size wars early, and its arguable at best to say that the large screen size out weighed the benefits of one hand use at that time. The tipping point came sometime after, and even that tipping point, again, is arguable, relevant and subjective.

 

[Boatboy24]

Expectations are sky high. Be prepared for the stock to nosedive after Apple's Q1 earnings announcement.

 

[iamPro]

I want a SMALLER phone

two lines of Apps with a Dock

three columns

iPhone Nano please!!!

fast chip, I don't care about movies on my phone or games

I need Text and Calls, just like 90% of the rest of the world

Image

There must be some survey.
But I would think 90% of the time, people aren't using their smartphones for making phone calls and text.

 

[0098386]

Am I the only person who does NOT want a bigger screen? Sheesh.

Same! 4S is the perfect size for me. I've got a computer and iPad for doing emailing and big work - the 4S size is great for putting in your pocket and doing stuff on the go. I personally can't fault it!

I'll be holding off on the iPhone if the next one doesn't have a display the size of the 4S.