Just for the record, Apple doesnt listen to what you say. They dont. They "listen" to what to do.
I dont mean this in a bad way. They are a known practitioner of what is called "design thinking" princples, in which you might ask the customer what they care about but mostly you look to see what matters to them and then make a product to satisfy those unmet needs that you saw in their life.
That's a fair analogy. I wouldn't go as far as saying that they don't listen though. Sure there are so many wants that not all things people say can be met, and it often makes people feel like they're just not being listened to. But alot of what goes into any kind of creative design come from ideas, and to talk about and share the ideas and experiences publicly is a way of helping innovative flow to stay connected to that experience, and helps keep it stay meaningful and relevant. But I agree with you totally that it'll never be a a case if "the people demand x, and the company must eventually give in" type of thinking. Apple are indeed the primary innovators, and you're right that they do test
how people use the devices, but they also do care about the user experience, and do pay attention to some extent to user feedback. So I still feel it's beneficial to have open discussions about how we've genuinely experienced these things, as it is enlightening both to the innovators, and also to other users to see how differently each of us have experienced the same things, and I'd say it does still help more educated design decisions to be possible.
Apple still needs to get a bigger screen in this form factor. 4" is at this point less usable than many customers needs. That will come with the virtual touch ID and the subsequent removal of the physical home button, but it will also involve a tweaking of the device to be slightly thinner but wider. You probably end up with 4.3" screen or 4.5" in this form factor.
I still think though that the endgame here is one device in this size but with about a 4.3"/4.5" screen, and a 5" device replacing both the 4.7" and the 5.5" device that are on the market now.
Honestly I think that it's better for them to have 3 sizes. There are those who want a big screen and don't care about one handed use and want the biggest iPhone possible, and they get the Plus; and there are those who really want a nice, comfortable, one handed form factor, they get the SE. Then there are those like myself who want a comfortable form factor that can still be easily one handed but still provides a great amount of screen space.
Now, that's not to say Apple shouldn't decrease the bezels on all three sizes, but I would keep all three sizes and just reduce bezels on them, giving a big more screen on each size but retaining the overall benefits of each.
Summed up beautifully, and why I love having these conversations. This is another perfect example of how amidst the many differences of opinion, that there is also alot of common ground that seems to come not in just one form, but come in the form of a few clearly identifiable schools of thought, which are all relevant. It shows how different people experience things differently, and that no "one-size-fits-all" method would ever cater for everybody. The three existing size models do seem to cater for each group's way of thinking to some extent, so it's good that this level of choice is available, as each of us can now opt for the version that suits us best, without anyone having to sacrifice as much as they would if we were limited to just one version of that.
Additionally though, it is also uncovering commonalities even between the differentiating schools of thought, which is also quite enlightening. The distinctive groups side of the equation being that there will always be people like myself and JerTheGeek who are quite similar on how we feel about favoring the smaller sizes of phone, yet there will always be many people like Osamede (who quite legitimately) would prefer something a little larger, and many also who find the full-on phablet sizes more useful to them. The commonalities being that while things like decreased bezels aren't necessarily deal breakers for everyone, even those of us it didn't matter to so much probably wouldn't mind if this was a direction they took.
So it's quite nice to see the bigger picture side of things that means there are ways to keep everyone happy, and sometimes that is to have a model that caters for each of the different groups. Identifying what those groups look like is the first step to reaching that, and I think they're doing a great job so far.
