Smartphone owners want large displays between 4" and 4.5"

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ToTTenTranz said:
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?
The title is enough: "HTC knocks Apple of top spot as display sizes grow."

Yes: I pity the fool who, at the time of this publication, thought it's be a good idea to invest in HTC. Right before they came crashing down because of uninspiring bland me-too phones with a big screen.

There's 2 possibilities: either title/abstract is a meaningful indicator of the report's content or it is not. I'm suggesting it is, and I'm not willing to pay to find out. That's all. If you think the title/abstract is no representative enough to make conclusions, why don't you apply the same standard for your original link?

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?
Absolutely. See: if there's one thing Apple has proven over and over again, it's that most customers don't know what they want if you ask. Yes, that's condescending, but it doesn't make it any less true.

People were screaming about the lack of a HW keyboard on the iPhone. And, yes, there are still people who prefer it. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it turned out that many more are willing to not have one in return for a touch screen. (Personally: I've never used a HW keyboard on a phone, so I don't know. But I do know that my BB lawyer friend was impressed how wicked fast I am on my iPhone keyboard.)

People were screaming how useless a MacBook Air is without an Ethernet port, DVD slot etc. Look where that got them.

No customer opinion survey with tons of fancy statistics would have given that result.

Analysts are a dime a dozen. They're also every often wrong. And they get quoted all the time in publications everywhere.
 
The title is enough: "HTC knocks Apple of top spot as display sizes grow."

Yes: I pity the fool who, at the time of this publication, thought it's be a good idea to invest in HTC. Right before they came crashing down because of uninspiring bland me-too phones with a big screen.

There's 2 possibilities: either title/abstract is a meaningful indicator of the report's content or it is not. I'm suggesting it is, and I'm not willing to pay to find out. That's all. If you think the title/abstract is no representative enough to make conclusions, why don't you apply the same standard for your original link?

Dafuq you're talking about?!!
The abstract has no mention of HTC or any other brand whatsoever.


Absolutely. See: if there's one thing Apple has proven over and over again, it's that most customers don't know what they want if you ask. Yes, that's condescending, but it doesn't make it any less true.

People were screaming about the lack of a HW keyboard on the iPhone. And, yes, there are still people who prefer it. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it turned out that many more are willing to not have one in return for a touch screen. (Personally: I've never used a HW keyboard on a phone, so I don't know. But I do know that my BB lawyer friend was impressed how wicked fast I am on my iPhone keyboard.)

People were screaming how useless a MacBook Air is without an Ethernet port, DVD slot etc. Look where that got them.

No customer opinion survey with tons of fancy statistics would have given that result.

Analysts are a dime a dozen. They're also every often wrong. And they get quoted all the time in publications everywhere.

EDITED: meh not worth the effort.

So to cut things short, your brilliant conclusion is that this statistical study must be wrong because it doen't say that the iphone's perfect screen size developed by perfect apple is perfect, and because only apple knows what people want, and not people thmeselves, right?

Cool story.

BTW, I'll just say it again: these are statistical results, not your typical "analyst crystal ball" material.
 
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ToTTenTranz said:
Dafuq you're talking about?!!
The abstract has no mention of HTC or any other brand whatsoever.
I don't think we're talking about the same abstract. :D I was talking about the one from the same world famous analyst bureau where they do mention HTC in the title and the abstract and how they will topple Apple. It shows how a never heard of but certainly world famous analyst can be completely wrong too.

In related news: iPhone users want qwerty keyboard.
http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=pressreleaseviewer&a0=4838
 
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BTW, I'll just say it again: these are statistical results, not your typical "analyst crystal ball" material.

To be honest, a statistical result is only as good as how it's conducted. Since the report is for sell, that means most people can't see them and it's likely not peer reviewed. Even if we assume that a statistical result is useful in this case (which is still in question for the reasons silent_guy mentioned), I'd believe a research paper in a peer reviewed journal, with more details like the sample size, how they conduct the tests, etc. more than a costly analysts report.

I don't even know why people argue about this. If you think a larger screen is important for a smartphone, buy one. No one is stopping you. If you have to use an iPhone but since iPhone doesn't come in larger screen versions, well, tell Apple that you really want an iPhone with larger screen. Maybe they will listen if enough people told them so.

Arguing about why some people may want a larger screen phone is fine (heck, if you want one you should already have your reasons). Arguing over an analysts report which most people can't even read if, IMHO, a bit too silly.
 
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.
I agree. Any bigger than the Captivate/Fascinate and I can't reach all corners with one hand. Hopefully not every phone becomes super sized.
 
I wouldn't mind a 4.6 inch screen like the galaxy nexus . However they need to shrink the bezels even more.
 
3dcgi said:
I agree. Any bigger than the Captivate/Fascinate and I can't reach all corners with one hand. Hopefully not every phone becomes super sized.

Yep everyone is different. I'm 6'4" / 1.92m and can easily go from the bottom of my iPhone to the top, which is a similar distance as the length of the 5" Vita screen.
 
When I went from a Galaxy S1 to an iPhone4S I noticed two things that seem relevent to this (somewhat daft) discussion,

1) Web browsing experience was impacted slightly by the 4s's smaller screen
2) The 4s tends to fall out of my pocket less often.

The first of these is a smaller influence on my future buying dicisions than the second, although development of/investment in phone retaining pockets may be a better investment...
 
When I went from a Galaxy S1 to an iPhone4S I noticed two things that seem relevent to this (somewhat daft) discussion,

1) Web browsing experience was impacted slightly by the 4s's smaller screen
2) The 4s tends to fall out of my pocket less often.

The first of these is a smaller influence on my future buying dicisions than the second, although development of/investment in phone retaining pockets may be a better investment...

Isn't point 2 more a result of the different shape of the iPhone and not so much the difference in size?

As for my opinion on the subject, I personally think that anything larger than 4.5" is just too large for me. I wouldn't have any trouble operating a phone with a 5" screen or something, but I don't think it'll comfortably fit in all my pants. I currently have a Samsung Omnia 7 though and I'm pretty satisfied with it at the moment.
 
Slippery phones are a problem. I'm not a fan of protective phone cases at all but have needed to buy one for my Atrix because the gripless back panel makes it very difficult to hold the phone. Without the case, I dropped it way too often.

Hopefully, all the manufacturers have now realised that slippery cases are a bad idea and will make sure that the backs of new phones have some sort of texture to them...
 
Yep everyone is different. I'm 6'4" / 1.92m and can easily go from the bottom of my iPhone to the top, which is a similar distance as the length of the 5" Vita screen.
Just for the record, I'm 6'3" tall so it's not like I have small hands. :smile:
 
Helmore said:
Isn't point 2 more a result of the different shape of the iPhone and not so much the difference in size?

As for my opinion on the subject, I personally think that anything larger than 4.5" is just too large for me. I wouldn't have any trouble operating a phone with a 5" screen or something, but I don't think it'll comfortably fit in all my pants. I currently have a Samsung Omnia 7 though and I'm pretty satisfied with it at the moment.

The phone could be iPhone size and still just under 5", just as long as it is all screen. I think Samsung recently announced just such a phone, though a really expensive one, but is shows it can be done.
 
It seems to me the discussion isn't really about screen size, but about phone size.
 
It seems to me the discussion isn't really about screen size, but about phone size.

Some people actually think that screen size shouldn't increase above a certain size because it would hinder the GUI's ergonomics - even if the handheld's size is kept intact.

Either that's an actually well-thought personal preference or some very strong bias towards a certain brand/model that eventually strips people from having opinions other than whatever the brand dictates, is a whole other story.
 
Some people actually think that screen size shouldn't increase above a certain size because it would hinder the GUI's ergonomics - even if the handheld's size is kept intact.
I'd say there's some truth to that, but not because of the screen size itself – obviously a phone with a 5" edge-to-edge screen could just emulate smaller screen sizes using black borders. The issue is what developers do with it.

Ideally you'd test the interface for every form factor and do adjustments where required, but given the variety of smartphones that just isn't possible. 5" is sufficiently larger than e.g. 3.7" that many apps should have their UI modified in one way or another, but that often doesn't happen. It might not always be the best idea to place buttons in screen corners, for example. Even devices with the same screen size may be held differently depending on weight distribution, texture, or position of buttons. As larger phones become more popular there will be a shift in the screen size(s) developers optimise for, but it will take time.
 
ToTTenTranz said:
Some people actually think that screen size shouldn't increase above a certain size because it would hinder the GUI's ergonomics - even if the handheld's size is kept intact.
How do you increase the screen size significantly for most current smartphones? There isn't much bezel to speak of, is there?
 
It seems to me the discussion isn't really about screen size, but about phone size.

Almost 90% of existing smartphone owners chose a prototype smartphone with a display larger than their current device as their most preferred size

So for my part I've always taken this discussion to be about screen size only and I think this goes for most participants ... .

Anyway, a Retina display doesn't have to change resolution, then scaling that to say, a 5.2" phone with a 4.8" size display similar to that Galaxy would be perfect to me as a phone (and everyone in this room here is taller than me, lots of really tall guys here ;) ). I've also said for more than a year now that I'd prefer my next phone to have a bigger display, and that currently if I had a say in it (currently I don't as my company buys only iPhones), I'd prefer an Android ... That said, if I didn't have to pay, I'd prefer an iPhone with a bigger size screen. ;) After all my wife has one too and we've got plenty of apps purchased.

But if I were to have to buy a phone myself today, I'd probably get a big screened Android.
 
edge-to-edge screen will not work all that well when hold in hand and you touch the edge with your palm while trying to reach the other end of the screen with your thumb. Bezel is needed no matter how big the phone is, unless you drop the screen lower inside the edges kind of like a picture frame. In that case the bezel could be really thin indeed.
 
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