Smartphone owners want large displays between 4" and 4.5"

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http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=ReportAbstractViewer&a0=7194


Strategy Analytics has identified that smartphone owners want devices that have larger displays. Almost 90% of existing smartphone owners chose a prototype smartphone with a display larger than their current device as their most preferred size. The sweet spot for these users is 4.0-inches to 4.5-inches, driven by increased web browsing and multimedia experiences. As manufacturers drive smartphones with larger displays onto the market, they need to ensure that these devices remain thin, ‘pocketable’ or ‘pursable’ and have a high-resolution display to ensure high adoption
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So much for "perfect sizes" and over-the-top thumb-reach theories, uhn?
 
Yeah, I'd want a phone that has a display that covers the entire surface fo the iPhone as a minumum display size as well, so that would be something like 4.8". That doesn't make research wrong in general about ease of use and thumbs and such, but not all people are created equal.
 
Biggest problem with all the people claiming how the tiny 3.5" in iphones is the best screen size one could ever create is that they ignore the fact how different people are. My thumb is about 2cm longer than my GF's. I can cover 4.5-5" screen just as good as she can 3.5" one, though in general use that isn't even needed and I would actually even prefer >5" phone (mini-tablet? :)).

One size does not fit all.
 
hoho said:
One size does not fit all.
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But apparently the size that fits the most people is 4->4.5".
I just thought this was an interesting follow-up to a discussion that appeared in the iphones thread.




BTW: My girlfriend has small hands and right now her "dream phone" is the 5" Galaxy Note.
She doesn't really care about one-hand usage, she always carries her phones in the handbag so it doesn't matter if it's large. She does love the large screen and how she could use it to web-browse confortably anytime.
 
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Yes, I love phones that can't fit in a pocket, that break apart if they fall from my desk and that last half a day of normal use.
Because I'm a masochist.
 
fehu said:
Yes, I love phones that can't fit in a pocket
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What kind of pockets do you have? My wallet takes much more room than my phone and I can fit both to a single pocket of my jeans.

Now considering I'm rather slim at 1.8m/65kg and not wearing very loose clothes it should be far easier for the average US person to fit a bigger phone to their pockets :)
 
Too big to fit in your pocket? Just how small are your pockets? ;)

The new Huawei Ascend D Quad has a 4.5" HD screen and the dimensions and weight of the phone are reported to be: 129 x 64 x 8.9mm, Weight 130g

The specifications of my Motorola Atrix (which has a 4" screen), which is sitting comfortably in my pocket at this moment are: 117.8 x 63.5 x 11mm, Weight 135g

Ultimately, the Huawei phone will have a HD 4.5" screen in a form factor that is thinner and just 1cm taller than my Atrix which I keep in a thin protective case which adds a little more bulk to the original specifications.

Both phones weigh less than the much smaller iPhone 4/4S.

I agree that the dimensions of some of the new phones with 4.5 to 4.7" screens are getting a little too big, but the Huawei indicates that this doesn't necessarily have to be the case and the huge numbers of Galaxy S (4" screen) and Galaxy S II (4.3") sold would tend to indicate that phones of that size are not considered too much of a problem by most.

Obviously, different people want different things from their phones but I will say that Angry Birds is much easier on my Atrix than on my previous phone which only had a 3.7" screen! :p
 
fehu said:
Yes, I love phones that can't fit in a pocket, that break apart if they fall from my desk and that last half a day of normal use.
Because I'm a masochist.
Click to expand...

Yes, the world is filled with people complaining about how their 4" phones don't fit in their pockets (hilarious, btw), broke because they fell from their desks and don't "last half a day of normal use".

Nonetheless, it seems most people are "masochists" because they prefer phones with horrendous large screens that do more harm than good.
 
Not that I'm disputing the results, but knowing their testing methodology could be very important. For example, if they lined up a bunch of prototype phones, hopefully identical other than screen size, and asked a general "Which do you like better", that would probably yield preference for larger sizes than "Which do you like better for everyday use." The content being displayed on screen during testing could also skew things.

It would be interesting if one of the analysts firms figured out the sales breakdown by screen size of current smartphones. I'd imagine the sales breakdown wouldn't be 90% in favor of 4"-4,5" as the study suggests consumer preference is for. Is the discrepancy then between actual sales and reported preference simply because there aren't enough 4-4.5" phones on the market? Is it because Apple only offers one screen size and that skews the results toward smaller screen size because some people want to stick with iOS? Is there some other gap between seeing a bigger screen phone in a display and actually buying it for personal use?
 
ToTTenTranz said:
http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=ReportAbstractViewer&a0=7194

So much for "perfect sizes" and over-the-top thumb-reach theories, uhn?
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Are these the same analysts that predict that Android will soon take over iOS in tablet market? That Apple is about to start the great decline? That people want an 'open' OS? And USB ports? That 20x15 is stupid and 1080p for a tablet is just fine (oops, sorry, wasn't an analyst) ? That Apple needs to release a netbook? That we should have sold Apple stock at $380?

Etc. Etc.

FYI: Everybody can call themselves an analyst.
 
ltcommander.data said:
It would be interesting if one of the analysts firms figured out the sales breakdown by screen size of current smartphones. I'd imagine the sales breakdown wouldn't be 90% in favor of 4"-4,5" as the study suggests consumer preference is for
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Of course it won't be because generally bigger-screen phones cost a ton and are sold less frequently. Also there are far fever models with big screens than smaller ones with varying features. For many those features are probably more important than screen size and thus they are "forced" to give up bigger screens.

So no, sales statistics won't give you real idea of what users want.
 
One interesting point is that this study specifically focuses on current smartphone owners. I wonder if the preference is different for current feature phone owners looking for their first smartphone? This market is where all the growth is coming from so it's obviously very important. It's quite likely these first time smartphone buyers don't have as strong a preference for large screen sizes given their current point of comparison. Apple's one-size-fits-all approach would have to cater to both new and current smartphone markets and so would have to skew lower in screen size while other smartphone makers can target the markets with separate products. If the preference for larger screens for current smartphone owners remains, when the phone market has predominantly switched to smartphones, Apple would presumably have to switch up.
 
silent_guy said:
Are these the same analysts that predict that Android will soon take over iOS in tablet market? That Apple is about to start the great decline? That people want an 'open' OS? And USB ports? That 20x15 is stupid and 1080p for a tablet is just fine (oops, sorry, wasn't an analyst) ? That Apple needs to release a netbook? That we should have sold Apple stock at $380?

Etc. Etc.

FYI: Everybody can call themselves an analyst.
Click to expand...

It comes from a 40-year old company called "Strategy Analytics" that is often quoted by Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and Reuters.


If I didn't know what I was talking about, I would try to do a 10s google research instead of ridiculing myself in the quest for cheap bullying or some weird personal flame war.
But that's me..

BTW, you didn't even read that (flawed, of course) tablet market prediction properly. It claimed Android would only surpass iOS in 2016, which is hardly any kind of "soon".
 
I think 4" is perfect. I remember playing around with a Samsung Captivate and Focus for a few weeks and never thought the screen was too large, but when I had a Galaxy Nexus, I was annoyed at how many actions required my thumb to reach the top of the screen.
 
ToTTenTranz said:
It comes from a 40-year old company called "Strategy Analytics" that is often quoted by Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

BTW, you didn't even read that (flawed, of course) tablet market prediction properly. It claimed Android would only surpass iOS in 2016, which is hardly any kind of "soon".
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Google is too much effort. Much easier to just click some links on the page you provided. Which directly leads to this: http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=reportabstractviewer&a0=6470

I pity the fool who made his investment decisions on that piece of learned advice!

As for 2016: the tablet market is just 2 years old and moving extremely fast. It's lunacy to predict something 4 years out at this time. So, yes, that report is inherently flawed just because of the title alone. Did any analyst in 2008 predict the domination of Apple in the phone and tablet space? That's also 4 years ago.

Look: I'm not saying that there isn't a sizable market for 4" phone and who knows what Apple will do in the future. It's not only technology, people habits change over time as well. Right now, 3.5" seems to suit a lot of people just fine.
 
I wouldn't say apple is dominating smartphone market. They may be the biggest single company but in terms of overall market share they are relatively small now. With tablets they will quite likely be the same. Pretty much the only reason why they lead is that they have a year of head start
silent_guy said:
Right now, 3.5" seems to suit a lot of people just fine.
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It's not that much what suites people, it's mostly what they actually can choose from at their price points and availiable features.

E.g I need full qwerty HW keyboard and having real Linux on the device instead of just the kernel with a bunch of home-made userland tools. There have been about two choises for those kinds of phones, n900 and n950. Unfortunately both have relatively tiny screens at 3.5 and 4". I'd love to have n950 with 5" screen but it simply doesn't exist so I have to settle for less. For other users it's even worse as n950 is nearly impossible to get unless you are a developer or extremely lucky and win it in a lottery as I did :p
 
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ToTTenTranz said:
Erm.. that's only the abstract. The report itself is 9 pages long and costs $2000.
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Just like the report you quoted. Do you mean that the actual content of their reports doesn't quite match the content of their abstract?
 
silent_guy said:
Just like the report you quoted. Do you mean that the actual content of their reports doesn't quite match the content of their abstract?
Click to expand...

I don't get it.
Why do you "pity the fool who made his investment decisions on that piece", based on the scarce information you get from looking at a brief abstract?

Are you willing to neglect the statistical work of a world-renowned analyst company about screen size preferences just because it doesn't match your personal preferences?
Or because the gawdalmighty-perfect-miraculous-magical iphone doesn't match the preferred screen size?
 
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