Lets Talk Handset Features - My Hypothesis is that Screen Size Trumps Everything

So right off the bat. I am not a handset designer. Never was and haven't been anywhere near handset design either when employed by Nokia or before or thereafter even in my consulting career when I did numerous consulting gigs for various Nokia units as well as several other handset manufacturers. They didn't want me for my insigts in how to make handsets better they appreciated my knowhow in the mobile industry ecosystem and the role of carriers, mobile services and apps, consumers. But I wasn't hired to design the networks or write code or god forbid, try to design the next Razr or iPhone or Xperia haha...

That being said I am a grumpy old geezer with a ready opinion on just about anything in our industry. And today I feel like giving my thoughts on the form factor and feature set of handsets. Many have read on this blog how I love a given smartphone for its great camera (N93, N82, 808 Pureview, Xperia Z1 etc). Often I have called for good physical keyboards waxing lyrcal about the old Communicator line of Nokia or my happiness with the Blackberry Bold I once used etc. And I've talked about many other things from time to time. Now, recently, as we've seen the growth of the screen size - incidentially something my dear friend Christian Lindholm who once was Nokia's head designer - forecasted the handset industry would embark upon, when he visited us at MoMo Hong Kong I think around 2007 or so. MoMo is Mobile Monday for those not familiar with the biggest mobile enthusiast community accross I think its now over 200 cities already? Sorry I am digressing. Yeah, Christian was working for Fjord at the time when he visited us in Hong Kong and he forecasted that the handset industry was reversing its pursuit of the smallest handset ever that had already approached the size of the credit card in Japan, to now growing phones driven by the biggest screen anyone would dare to install on a phone. I remember him promising far larger handset screens than the then-monstrous size of the just-announced iPhone at 3.5 inches. I think Christian suggested phones might go to 5 inches even... He knows his stuff.

Now we have lots of speculation about Apple again growing its screen size of the next flagship iPhone to come closer to the enormous sizes that Samsung and other rivals offer. And others say no no no that is not necessary, because Apple is different and (nonsense follows).

Yeah. We know now that the 4 inch size is no longer a flagship just like an 8mp camera is about past its prime. The industry does move on and Apple will need to get on with the program and give us modern-size big screens (and modern bigger cameras too). But it has me thinking. Where should be the priorities and more imporantly: why.

So another caveat. Contrary to most posts I write this time I have no stats to support my hypothesis. Yes there are some statistics that handset screen sizes continue to grow but apart from that kind of numbers there are really no comparative preferences. This is what I mean. There are no studies asking consumers a comparative preference such as: would you take a 5 inch screen but 8 mp camera or 4.5 inch screen with 12 mp camera. Or would you take a 4 inch screen with 16 mp camera. Other things being equal so this would be your fave handset brand in both cases and the price would be identical of course. Same comparative study could be about battery life or memory or CPU or physical keyboard or whatnot. I'd love to see any such studies by anyone from any market so if any readers know of any, please share. Or for example would you take a 5 inch screen on an iPhone with regular resolution or a 4.5 inch screen with Retina Display. I know some would love the retina but I'm pretty sure the majority would rather take the larger screen if all other specs and price were the same.

SCREEN SIZE TRUMPS EVERYTHING

But back to my thinking. I think screen size trumps all - for most users. Yes there are some of us who are camera freaks - I would rate the optical zoom or superhigh resolution camera ahead of the biggest screen and essentially any other option including my beloved physical QWERTY keyboard haha, but I know I am not 'normal' (yeah, I do know it while I pretend to be a normal human being haha). I have in many cases quite extreme preferences. 

Yeah. Screen Size Trumps Everything. Lets take texting. So many of us are addicted to mobile messaging. And a physical QWERTY keyboard is better than a touch-screen keyboard. One of the big hassles of the touch screen is that you have to watch everything you write - that SLOWS YOU DOWN compared to a full-QWERTY keyboard and mobile is about speed. Plus with a virtual keyboard you do far more errors wihen you dont' ahve phsyical tactile feeling when you type. And the virtual keyboard steals from the large screen so you have much less visible area to see what you write, etc etc. So a real physical QWERTY keyboard is very compelling to perhaps 30% of the total mobile users who are more-or-less addicted to mobile messaging from SMS to Whatsapp. But...

But.. Screen Size Trumps Everything. Other things being equal, if the phone is a choice between Blackberry-style QWERTY with a half-phone sized screen like a 2.5 or 3 inch scrren, and a 5 inch massive screen that then forces us to use the virtual kegboard - or most people the big Screen Size Trumps Everything. We fall in love with that massive screen.

Its been that way for hafl a decade at least. The 2.5 inch screens of Nokia N-Series were huge compared to the rivals with 2 or 2.2 inch screens. Then the humongous iPhone with the 3.5 inch screen. Then we had the amazing letterbox 4 inch screen on the E90 Communicator, a FABULOUS screen to watch movies. Then we saw 4.5 inch screens, 5 inch screens, 6 inch screens... Side by side that larger screen is just better. The pictures look better the maps are more clear the videos seem better, the touch-screen buttons are larger with less typos, etc etc etc. 

Yes, in a perfect world we'd love to have both, like the E7 Nokia at the time had the 4 inch screen - bigger than the contemporary iPhone, as a well-functioning touch screen - plus the physical QWERTY wide keyboard as a slider-folder expansion. That was wonderful. But if we have to choose like the new Blackberries on the Z10 OS. They were both a suboptimal choice. Either get the 'real' Blackberry keyboard on the 'tiny' half-phone sized screen which was utterly outdated or take the 'only touch screen' Blackberry - which therefore was not a 'real' Blackberry without the physical keyboard. So what did the customers buy. The Galaxy Note! Obviously if you can't have a 'proper Blackberry keyboard' and a big screen, then what you want is the biggest screen going. The Z10 was a bad compromise and certainly not best touch screen device out there nor the biggest screen. Why. Because Screen Size Trumps Everything.

If Blackberry are really smart, they will release at least one phone that is a slider or folder style that will have both a large physical keyboard for the real Blackberry experience and a large, at least 5 inch touch screen. That could be a killer flagship. Because Screen Size Trumps Everything even the Crackberry addiction. But no Blackberry loyalist will buy any Berry that doesn't have a real physical keyboard. Its like buying a Ferrari with a diesel engine haha ( and with my luck thats already been launched by the Prancing Horse )

And what of my beloved cameras? Yeah I played with the Samsung Galaxy Zoom but then I could have the monster Sony Xperia Z1 screen and its removable Zoom optional lens. Not the most elegant solution on the camera side but now I get the massive screen. I love it... as Screen Size Trumps Everything.

For a while Apple's response to larger screens on Android was 'retina display'. And yes on a same-size screen the retina display is visibly sharper. Astonishingly sharp. But that is only if you compare two 3.5 inch screens side-by-side. A larger screen trumps the retina display. Even Apple acknowledged this and gave us the 4 inch screen on the iPhone. Why isn't the sharpest screen good enough even when on an iPhone? Because Screen Size Trumps Everything.

Look at your home TV. Over time and I mean decades rather than years we all have continuously upgraded our main TV set screen size. Why is that? Because Screen Size Trumps Everything. Now how come the market for tablets of 7 inche size is growing faster than the market for tablets of 10 inche size? I think that is because they are somewhat differing user cases. So we have actually two tablet market opportunities. A 'full size' tablet means you put it in a case and carry it in a bag. Its use is more 'professional' if you like and a rather clear laptop-replacement scenario. But the 7 inch tablet you can actually squeeze into a pocket or purse - not always and not very comfortably, but enough that their use cases have divergence. So the small tablet is more the casual use case. There may well emerge a 'screen size race' for 'full sized tablets that goes larger than the 10 inches. Most definitely on the side of smartphones we see the race up the size into phablets that approach that 7 inch small tablet size... But on tablets, I am not that much an expert on tablets haha. But in handsets definitely the screen sizes are still growing into the phablets sizes...

So that was my hypothesis for today. Waddaya think? Do you agree that Screen Size Trumps Everything?

Comments

[AndThisWillBeToo]

@Satya Nutela
> @LeeBase
> "Finally you end with "you're an iSheep""
> You really ARE an iSHEEP!!!!

He is and boy do we love his comments because of it, not despite of it. :)

[Dipankar]

"E7 Nokia at the time had the 4 inch screen - bigger than the contemporary iPhone, as a well-functioning touch screen - plus the physical QWERTY wide keyboard as a slider-folder expansion."

I absolutely loved the E7 for just this reason... best of both worlds. If you like touchscreen, go ahead and keep the phone closed. Need to write a long email fast? Slide out the QWERTY!
Nokia probably should have made more of these, but this side-slider QWERTY category would never become too popular (unless, maybe Apple decided to put one on the next iPhone).

Besides this, my personal opinion is that 4 to 4.5 inches is the ideal size. Anything bigger is difficult to type with one hand, and bulges out of your pocket. But what do I know! The market clearly thinks otherwise.

[RottenApple]

Concerning bigger screens, for me it boils down to one simple thing:

On a 4'' display I am having trouble typing with the small on-screen keys. That tiny little unimportant fact outright kills smaller phones for me.

[Huber]

Leebase says:

>> Google is not open source in any real sense of the word. It does not have a community of developers.

This is a lie, pure and simply.

I already provided a link to a XDA, I can do easily it again: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2397511

Just look at this link - you have your open source kernel and OS sources on Github, how could an OS be more open?

On XDA you have your community of Android developers, programming tools like XPOSED framework, Kernels, custom ROMs etc.

How can Leebase claim that there is no community? Is he really so ignorant to spread around bullshit, or is he a liar? I really do not know anymore.

And then this lie here:

>> And if you think rooting a phone is a good thing, then iPhone users have the same option via Jailbreaking.

Is jailbreaking really the same? Is Apple actively supporting jailbreaked devices, like Google does? Are in Apple's App Store apps which can only be used on jailbreaked iPhones?

On Google's Play store you find apps which only work on rooted devices, like SuperSU or FolderMount

So here you have your difference.

I really like to discuss things, and I can accept other opinions. But I hate liars, and what Leebase does here is lying, pure and simple.

[Satya Nutela]

@Huber (above post)

Tottally agree. Leebase is like an asshole who can't thanks google goodwill, but bow down to apple iron fist.

@LeeBase

Let's talk..... You're problem is not about the DEGREE of open source but with google. Whatever google did, you think it's wrong!!!

Opensource... There is no right or wrong or more opensource. It's up to the owner of project to define how much open, or how the governance of the project is.

In case of android, google made part of the source code open in AOSP, but keep the one that were for Google Service NOT open. Which is not right or wrong. This just the way of balance that Google want. If YOU (or any other manufacture) think it's not fair, then no one force YOU (or that manufacture) to use Google. They can use WP and dead like nokia.

I would use an analogy of a party. In Google party.... Google, the beer company, offer many kind of food, and put the recipe next to the food. All this food recipe is CREATED by Google, and given free. But no recipe on their famous Beer. You see this, and say GOOGLE IS EVIL, despite Google give you Google caviar, Google lobster, etc, and give the recipe. You want Google to give you their famous recipe for their Beer too. Because you want to create their beer, and ripped them off. (otherwise, why?)

But when talking about other party, the Apple party, where's you pay with a hefty sum of money, and you just can enjoy the food, and no recipe on the side of the menu. You bow down, no comment!!! You only say. This is the best Apple lobster, and Apple caviar. I don't need the recipe, I have plenty of money, and I can buy this Apple lobster & Apple caviar again and again and again. While you also say, "all those who eat google stuff is a lame, poor, and don't bring profit to google"

The same as in WP party.

There is only 1 logical explanation to this phenomenal... and I'm very sorry for what I'm about to say.... You're an iSheep!!! You're affraid of google because you already sided with Apple, or you're just a plain asshole.

[tontridge]

I wanted the note when i upgraded for screen size but they are one generation behind all the new phones. When ice cream sandwhich came out and i got the htc one, the note was still the previous one and didnt get an upgrade till about another 6 months later. Now when im starting to upgrade im thinking about waiting the 6 months till it catches up to the current gen so i can have the bigger screen it offers. But now samsung may have the same size screen on the s5 so im waiting and hoping. Yes screen size is the best especially when your eyes are getting older.

[chithanh]

@LeeBase
I don't call you an iSheep, but I can see why someone would get the impression that you are. :)

The idea that only Samsung makes money with Android has been refuted many times already. Android is highly competitive, and so the margins are slim, but most Android handset makers operate at a small profit. Samsung just makes more profit than everybody else currently due to their position in the high end market.

Amazon replaced the proprietary Google services (which are mostly not related to telephony functions, mind you) with their own APIs. The closed-source Google apps are mostly related to their account and cloud services, something for which AWS etc. are a natural match.

And that Android does not sell as many high-end handsets is not correct. The most successful Android phones, the Galaxy S and Note series, are decidedly expensive high-end and large screen devices. You are fixated on a single company or a single phone model to outsell Apple, but that is not going to happen thanks to the competition between Android handset makers.

[Huber]

Leebase is the typical bullshitter:

After it was stated that jailbreaking and rooting IS NOT THE SAME THING, since Google actively supports it while Apple tries to kill your phone, he still insists on claiming it is the same.

Also it has been stated multiple times that ANDROID GIVES COMPLETE FREEDOM TO THE END USER, NOT THE OEM! Of course this is ignored, too. Only OEMs count in Lebbases' twisted view of the reality.

Additionally, I posted a link which proves the openness of Android twice.

Have you ever seen an open source iOS Kernel developer? Have you ever seen Apple releasing the source code of their Kernel? Have you ever met an iOS user who uses a different Kernel at all? Has any iOS user ever compiled iOS from source?

Are there open source iOs versions like on Android? Is there something like CM, OmniROM or Paranoid Android on iOS?

No? Doesn't matter to Leebase - it still is the same for him. And why? Because it is not 'community developed'.

Of course you will never see a definition of open source software which states that it has to be 'community developed' as a prerequisite, but Leebase uses his own definitions for his own little world, while at the same time ignoring the CM community, the OmniROM community, the Paranoid Android community and all other Android communities out there.

It is easy to fork Android and replace the Google parts if I wish to do so - just install an AOSP-based custom ROM withou the Google Apps and call it a day.

Again: I, as an end user, can do whatever I want with my phone, there are no restrictions whatsoever. All restrictions are OEM-only, so why should I care?

I just buy a phone, install a recovery and off I go, doing whaterev I want with it.

Compare this with an iPhone, where Apple tries to prevent people from jailbreaking and where jailbreaked phones can be bricked when you update them. I have never heard of a Samsung user who bricked his phone after rooting and afterwards updating.

Buit nooooooooooooooo, it's the same because Leebase says so.

To sum it up: It does not help your cause to repeat refuted points again and again, it just makes you look dishonest.

[Winter]

@LeeBase
"Only Google creates Android...unlike Linux, Open Office or any other "open source" project."

OpenOffice was not community based until very recently. It is still questionable whether anyone but the Sun people can actually build OpenOffice from source on their own machines. MySQL was not community based and probably still is not. Java is open source but the language development is not community based.

Nothing requires an OSS project to be community based.

[WonTheLottery]

@LeeBase
"If Android is SO GREAT...then why don't they sell a LOT better than the iPhone in a heads up choice without a price discrepancy?"

Don't tell me, let me guess... Could it be because only iSheep are stupid enough to pay that much?

[AndThisWillBeToo]

@WonTheLottery
"because only iSheep are stupid enough to pay that much?"

If that is the case...
...big hand to Apple.
Recent report says Apple picks over 80% of the PROFITS of the entire global handset industry.
Can you imagine a car maker finding 16% of the car buyers - call them iSheeps - and then selling them a car with margins so high that car maker suddenly pick 80% of the profits of entire car industry?
Can you imagine a watch maker that creates a wrist watch, sells it to just 16% of the wrist watch buyers on the planet and at the same time takes 80% of the profits of wrist watch industry - worldwide?

I love my Nokia. It's a nice phone and I don't see a single reason to go for iPhone. I let - if you allow me - iSheeps buy those. But that does not mean I don't raise my hat for Apple. You can't find success story like that anywhere.

Had Nokia been able to introduce a phone, the services and the ecosystem that would have been able to root equal profits from the industry and there would not have been OPK fired, no Elop hired, no WP, no Microsoft.

Let's all agree that those who buy iPhone are in fact iSheeps. I now recommend standing ovation to Apple for not only finding all those iDiots and gathering them together but also for milking the money out of them. Game well played.

[Satya Nutela]

@AndThisWillBeToo

"Can you imagine a car maker finding 16% of the car buyers - call them iSheeps - and then selling them a car with margins so high that car maker suddenly pick 80% of the profits of entire car industry?"

LOL. I also find it hard to believe. I think some blown up accounting is used.

Just a couple of days back, my friend who own a factory in China share me a story. In his (clothing) factory, one of his female worker, who have minimum wages, manage to buy the iphone 5S. That female factory worker managed to archive what she want... FAME!!! She could save a couple of thousands RMB (hunderds of dollar) buying samsung galaxy Note or samsung galaxy s4, but any samsung won't make any headline in that factory. LOL.

The question is how long can apple brand stay in the luxury brand, because right now, some user buy apple just to increase their ego. Samsung has a video about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNxDd3l0lEU

[E.Casais]

The tone of the discussion has become acrimonious, and the exchange of arguments about "open" vs. "closed" is stuck in a loop.

I thought the question about the scope of openness in Android had been settled back in 2010 with the revelations from the controversy about the Skyhook utility on Motorola and Samsung devices, but apparently the message did not get through.

For what it is worth, the definition of "open source software" can be found here:

http://opensource.org/docs/osd

[tontridge]

Let me tell you, there is a large installed base of Android users who are waiting for the S5 to come out. On day 1 they will buy the new S5, and it will be the largest sales of phones of any single brand ever. Iphone is not even talked about anymore in my circle of about 100 friends and 500 executives. Samsung S5 all the way forever. understand?

[Winter]

@Satya N
"Just a couple of days back, my friend who own a factory in China share me a story. In his (clothing) factory, one of his female worker, who have minimum wages, manage to buy the iphone 5S. That female factory worker managed to archive what she want... FAME!!!"

What is the value of a status symbol if minimum wage factory workers can get one?

@Satya N
"She could save a couple of thousands RMB (hunderds of dollar) buying samsung galaxy Note or samsung galaxy s4, but any samsung won't make any headline in that factory. LOL."

I do not find this amusing. A woman burned a few months of pay checks to buy an overpriced toy. It is her free choice (status over necessities), but it still makes me sad.

[Satya Nutela]

@Winter

LOL.
Apparently some iphone user think that using iphone will increase their status symbol. This is the same attitude where's some high school student will go hangout with a US$1000+ handbag just to say I'm fully loaded. and THIS IS THE REASON WHY apple were able to milking their brand. iphone is THE CHEAP (less than US$1000) status symbol item that have a real usage (compared to expensive bag, expensive clothing). This is the reason why apple can have more profit than other company. Because it's not about technology anymore. It's about branding, it's about status symbol.

When you understand (read: brainwashed by) branding/status symbol, then you will talk like Leebase & Baron. The idea such as if it's price equal, better get iphone. If iphone have 4.5"-4.7" samsung will suffer.... Again... the answer is, how long a trend like this will sustain. Nokia Communicator was one of the trend back in last decade. BB was also deemed cool, but then die.

[Zain Tahir]

Great work indeed! I like the work done by author, keep it up.
This is word exactly come out from my mouth when I saw this Article.

[E.Casais]

"One of the many hurdles the likes of Xiaomi, Coolpad, ZTE will face selling phones outside of China is building a brand (think LG for an example)."

True, but one cannot put all those manufacturers into the same bag.

ZTE and Huawei have significantly less of a problem building a presence outside China, because their brands are already well established in the mobile device space -- thanks to their USB wireless modems. At least in Europe, ZTE and Huawei (with some Alcatel) dominate the market of USB wireless modems. They are not nobodies.

[Mao Nixon]

What's app is more valuable than nokia?? Really?? 19 billion US$.

[AndThisWillBeToo]

@Mao Nixon
It is seen as the future of the mobile. Nokia is more like the past of mobile.