Tim Cook Comments on 5-Inch Phone Market, Reiterates Commitment to Quality Over Size

[JoeG4]

He's just doing what Steve Jobs used to do - when you only sell 2 slice toasters and customers start asking for 4 slice toasters, you try to convince them that a 2 slice toaster is all they need.

Of course, once the 4 slice toaster is ready to sell, they'll market it like as if it's the second coming of Christ.

 

[Lindberg]

It does not have to be a 5" screen. But 4.5 is perfect or even 4.3 is really nice. 4" just feels crippled compared to todays smartphones.

 

[Gothdroid]

I recently switched from the Nexus 4 to the iPhone 4S because of my job requires me to carry an iDevice, and honestly I don't mind the screen size. Can't wait to get the 5 this week to finally be off of T-Mobile EDGE.

 

[kuwan]

Read between the lines…

Our competitors have made some significant tradeoffs in many of these areas to ship a larger display. We would not ship a larger display iPhone while these tradeoffs exist.

Read between the lines here. This is as close as you’ll ever get to an Apple confirmation. IOW, you could interpret Cook as saying that they may (my guess is most likely) ship a larger display iPhone when they can do so without making unacceptable tradeoffs. That could be this fall, or it could be next year. But based on this quote a larger display iPhone is almost definitely coming.

 

[3282868]

As much as some complained about Jobs' terse (and cryptic) responses as being inappropriate, I miss them. Cook is a great CEO, but he lacks that edgy personality that Jobs brought to Apple. Apple was more a reflection or extension of Jobs. He didn't feel he owed anyone an explanation, and did things on his terms. Cook reveals too much, and seems to be trying to emulate leadership instead of finding his own voice in the company.

When you announce new products ahead of time, or explain too much on the companies strategy, promises are made that sometimes can't be kept (as in the new iMac). It also takes the surprise factor out of product releases. I miss the presentations and announcements.

(sorry for the changes, changed grammar a bit)

 

[AppleScruff1]

So be it. HTC One, here I come. I'm looking for bigger screen, not narrower.

The screen on the HTC One is outstanding.

 

[TallGuy1970]

The angst here about screen size is interesting. I am old enough to remember the first brick phones. My first phone was the brick-style flip phone from Motorola. It was awesome. I've seen the trend go from large to as small as possible (remember some of the tiny Nokia phones?) and now things are trending again to large phones. If, as the philosophers say, everything is cyclical, I wonder how long before we start down the road to tiny phones again.

 

[Mactendo]

It appears that Apple will not be releasing an iPhone with a larger screen until the company's manufacturing partners can supply it with a 5-inch screen that meets its demanding criteria.

How those partners can meet the criteria off app compatibility?

 

[Michael Scrip]

I still don't understand why they chose to go longer with the 5 rather than proportionally larger.

The "longer" screen was a move to a 16:9 aspect ratio from the former 3:2 aspect ratio.

It was no accident that 1136x640 is 16:9

 

[Millionaire2K]

As much as some complained about Jobs' terse (and cryptic) responses as being inappropriate, I miss them. Cook is a great CEO, but he lacks that edgy personality that Jobs brought to Apple. In fact, I almost believe that Apple was more a reflection or extension of Jobs. He didn't feel he owed anyone an explanation, and did things on his terms. Cook reveals too much, and seems to be trying to emulate leadership instead of finding his own voice in the company.

Love or hate it, Jobs had a persona that lead to a great company.

Oh don't forget Tim sucks at talking. He talks with this low voice acting like he's amazed at everything and we should be too. "Isn't that amazing... wow" Its just a pain to listen to.

 

[CEmajr]

I just saw the HTC One in person today and wow that thing is beautiful. I must say that its display and overall build quality trumps the iPhone 5 in every way. Too bad it's running Android.

 

[Internaut]

Apple may be dealing with underlying architecture issues in iOS that weren't foreseen early on. I speculate they either can't, or don't want to, have scaling within iOS, perhaps? (Android is good at this to the extent we often can't get proper tablet versions of our favourite apps.)

The other issue usability where Apple seem to be quite dogmatic. Anyone who owns one of the 5" ballpark phones knows that it doesn't work all that well when used one handed, especially if they've owned an iPhone.

What concerns me about Apple at this point though is actually that the cost of entry (i.e. the hardware costs) potentially stunts their growth as a services company. Nothing that would stop me buying an iPad 5 or an iPad Mini 2, but that could make me think twice, further down the line, with Google Play's inevitable growth and Amazon's dominance in books (not to mention Amazon's fast growing music sales).

 

[Mactendo]

As much as some complained about Jobs' terse (and cryptic) responses as being inappropriate, I miss them. Cook is a great CEO, but he lacks that edgy personality that Jobs brought to Apple. Apple was more a reflection or extension of Jobs. He didn't feel he owed anyone an explanation, and did things on his terms. Cook reveals too much, and seems to be trying to emulate leadership instead of finding his own voice in the company.

When you announce new products ahead of time, or explain too much on the companies strategy, promises are made that sometimes can't be kept (as in the new iMac). It also takes the surprise factor out of product releases. I miss the presentations and announcements.

Exactly.

 

[Eso]

Sorry Tim, but I have had two phones since my last iPhone and they have both had larger and better displays than the iPhone.

 

[daneoni]

It's not even as good as last years HTC One X, let alone the new One. Having said that I think the move to 1080 displays is ridiculous.

Outside of resolution and size it's every bit as good as the One X if not better in some cases (brighter). However the One is indeed superior.

 

[lincolnchee]

I have always been an avid fan of Apple since the first generation iPod Touch. Knowing that Apple will not be upsizing the iPhone screen size, I made a switch to the HTC One.

IMO, HTC One has a premium look and build and it has higher PPI than iPhone, it doesn't have a big screen that makes it hard to hold - only 4.7". You can move your finger across the screen easily. What is the quality attribute that Tim claimed the iPhone has over the HTC One?

With the patent war between Samsung and Apple, I don't think we can see any cool features of Android be ported over to the iPhone.

 

[3282868]

Oh don't forget Tim sucks at talking. He talks with this low voice acting like he's amazed at everything and we should be too. "Isn't that amazing... wow" Its just a pain to listen to.

Exactly. It seems so sterile. Jobs was the kind of guy who could sell a million freezers to Eskimo's. Sure, we may disagree on Apple products being "revolutionary" these days, but there was something about Jobs' presentations and personality that could get everyone's attention (reality distortion field or not, it was fun). Apple needs a leader, not a number cruncher.

 

[tech4all]

Oh don't forget Tim sucks at talking. He talks with this low voice acting like he's amazed at everything and we should be too. "Isn't that amazing... wow" Its just a pain to listen to.

Reminds me of that guy from the Clear Eyes commercials lol.

 

[thedarkhorse]

It was no accident that 1136x640 is 16:9

so you are telling me they use foresight, planning and.... math when developing phones? I don't believe it.

 

[sleepydinosaur]

I still don't understand why they chose to go longer with the 5 rather than proportionally larger.

This just confirmed that I will probably be picking up another phone this year. When Apple decides to get competitive, I might return. That or I will be so sick of Android, I will have no choice

I'd like to try something new as well but unless iTunes Match and iCloud can work on another phone....I'm kind of stuck.

I am waiting to upgrade from my iPhone 4......was waiting for the 5S but really, I'd love a 5" phone as its my only computer these days.

 

[mrsir2009]

Also, it's like everyone else is going backwards in time when the phones were larger.

That’s because the purpose of phones has completely changed. Ten years ago most phones (like the nokia bricks) were smaller in terms of height and width than even the iPhone - Which is great for calling and texting... But not so much for web browsing, gaming, emails, photos, videos etc etc. Phones these days are used to do tasks that computers and TV’s do - And computers and TV’s aren’t getting much smaller, are they?

 

[tech4all]

I just saw the HTC One in person today and wow that thing is beautiful. I must say that its display and overall build quality trumps the iPhone 5 in every way. Too bad it's running Android.

How long have you tried Android? If your going by what iPhone loyalists are saying here, judge for yourself. Plenty of what is said here is just nonsense IMO. They get UI is laggy...that's nonsense...I'm using it now as I type and its great. If you simply prefer iOS, more power to you then. Just saying plenty of talk here is by people who have no experience with Android. By experience I'm talking using Jelly Bean for more than 5 minutes.

 

[daneoni]

Delusional. But what else would you expect from a guy who has destroyed 5 times more investor value in one year than Bernie Madoff stole in a lifetime?

If Apple thinks they can wish away the changing reality of the market, they (and their stockholders) are going to be in for very rude awakening. There is absoutely *nothing* I can do with my phone on a 4" screen that I can't do better on a 5" screen. 4.7" is the bare minimum these days - Apple is still trying to compete with phones that were obsolete two years ago.

Really? People actually think like this?

 

[irDigital0l]

5-inch iPhone basically confirmed...

I can already see it

Phil walks on stage and shows off the iPhone 6 with a bigger display.

Then he talks for 20 minutes about how they managed to do everything better. Apple didn't want to ship a 5'' iPhone that didn't feel right, all the competition has gotten it wrong. Compares it to the Galaxy S4 and (like the iPad Mini and Nexus 7 comparison). Then goes over the specs.

 

[3282868]

That’s because the purpose of phones has completely changed. Ten years ago most phones (like the nokia bricks) were smaller in terms of height and width than even the iPhone - Which is great for calling and texting... But not so much for web browsing, gaming, emails, photos, videos etc etc. Phones these days are used to do tasks that computers and TV’s do - And computers and TV’s aren’t getting much smaller, are they?

Very true. It amazes me that companies can produce a phone that once took up an entire desktop. Amazing.

However, I do miss the days when phones were just phones. Maybe I'm too old, but it seems all these devices that are supposed to bring us together are taking the social out of personal relationships. (ducks)