“Apple leaks follow a familiar pattern,” Gordon Kelly writes for Forbes. “The true ones are quickly backed up by additional leaks and circumstantial evidence. The false ones are met with stony silence and fade away and the concerning thing is this has so far been the response to reports last week that Apple will make a 4-inch iPhone 6.”
“To many, myself included, Apple not making a 4-inch iPhone 6 (perhaps ‘iPhone 6 mini’ or ‘iPhone 6C’) is madness,” Kelly writes. “[However] while vocal, those still desperate for a 4-inch iPhone 6 may be in a smaller minority than they imagine. Data from analyst IDC in September found growth in the ‘phablet’ market (which it defines as 5.5-inch to sub-7-inch devices) is going to increase by 209% by the end of year. By comparison growth in regular smartphones will have grown just 12.8%. This will go on for some time as well as growth rates for phablets is still expected to be more than 5x that of smaller smartphones (16.6% vs 3.2%) by the end of 2018.”
“What drives this growth in big screen phones is changing usage. In short: smartphones are no longer primarily used as phones,” Kelly writes. “In fact some may argue they never were (smartphones tend to be small computers that just happen to make phone calls).”
MacDailyNews Take: Yup:
Apple’s “iPhone” isn’t really a phone at all. It’s really a small touchscreen Mac OS X computer, a Mac nano tablet, if you will. Here’s how misnamed the iPhone is: Some people are complaining that Jobs didn’t spend enough time on the Mac in his keynote! Folks, iPhone is not only a Mac, it’s the most radical new Mac in years!… It’s really a pocket Mac. It has email, SMS, full-featured Web browsing, and much more. But, beyond that, it is a platform that’s just sitting there waiting for Apple to sell software for it. Just imagine games with the large multi-touch display and the built-in accelerometer! – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, January 9, 2007
“As such if your phone is no longer predominantly a phone, it doesn’t need to be phone sized. Media consumption is most enhanced through a larger screen (which also drives purchases of more apps, video, music, etc) so smaller screens are marginalised,” Kelly writes. “Apple is a business. Industry data says that for the majority bigger is better and it is also where market momentum will lie for the next 3-4 years.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last Friday:
In general, the only people who still think they want a 4-inch iPhone are those who do not yet own a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 or 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus.
After iPhone 5s and 5c go the way of the dodo, the 4.7-inch display should, and likely will, be Apple’s smallest iPhone display going forward.
Related articles:
Apple rumored to be working on new 4-inch iPhone model – December 5, 2014