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>Customers do not prefer it, it was not popular, otherwise we would still see that form factor. This is not sufficient reasoning — industries can independently
by setr 7y ago
>Customers do not prefer it, it was not popular, otherwise we would still see that form factor.
This is not sufficient reasoning — industries can independently yet collectively decide what the next big thing is, and operate in tandem to produce a market where only that thing exists. Notably, the shift to large phone sizes occurred rapidly, suggesting this may have been the case. That the shift was not a reaction to consumer interest, but rather in anticipation of it.
The biggest recent example of this effect was the 5 years or so where every new tv was a 3D TV; its now been phased out in favor of SmartTVs, which I personally believe are shitty enough to likely have no real consumer support. Another example is car touchscreens, and their somehow consistent terribleness across all brands, even luxury ones.
- gurkendoktor 7y ago> That the shift was not a reaction to consumer interest, but rather in anticipation of it. When it comes to Apple, I believe it was not anticipation, but overreaction to the Galaxy Note. Phablets quickly became popular in East Asia[1], and "pocketability" turned out to be a complete non-issue for the many women who carry around a bag all day. But instead of just serving the phablet market, they've gone all-in on it. That said, I absolutely agree that companies often converge on weird standards. I'm glad that the glossy screen hype seems to be mostly over, but now we're losing inverted-T arrow keys :( [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/02/phablets-asia-pacific-tablets-laptops-growth https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/02/phablets-...
- w-ll 7y agoWhich is also funny because Apple made this commercial titled "Thumb" for the 5 (same form factor as the SE) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99m7lebirE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99m7lebirE
- dangus 7y agoJust my opinion, the fact that they had to make a commercial for this at all signifies their need to convince us to buy in on that sort of thing. They were absolutely nervous about losing sales to larger phones that customers liked. Turns out reaching everything with one thumb isn't really as important as having a big screen to view content on. We know the rest of the story, the next year the next iPhone became larger...