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I see an important question looming on the 5-year horizon: how are people going to be carrying these large devices? Clearly carrying large phones in pockets i

I see an important question looming on the 5-year horizon: how are people going to be carrying these large devices? Clearly carrying large phones in pockets is impossible for many, increasingly impractical for many more, and simply undesirable to the curious. Will handbags or hip bags become common for all? Will the average size of phones rebound and approach some smaller-screen equilibrium size near 5"? Everything depends on the adoption of these devices by younger people -- whatever becomes "cool". My prediction is that phones will become strapped to arms or shirts somehow. I see some sort of arm-hoslter or dedicated shirt pocket that comfortably, securely houses a mini-tablet.

jl6 12y ago
Arm holster is the way to go, like a Pip-boy.
- robmcm 12y ago
  Isn't the size of your arm/hand coupled to the size of your pocket? After all a pocket that can't fit a hand isn't a pocket.
eunoia 12y ago
I think the pocket problem is a little over played (at least for men). The 6+ fits fine in the pocket of my hipster skinny jeans. The strap idea is interesting. I have a hard time imagining a phone that gets people who aren't already carrying purses to start doing so. In addition to the social awkwardness (man purse?) it's just so much harder to lose something that you keep directly on your person.
freehunter 12y ago
>Clearly carrying large phones in pockets is impossible... impractical... and... undesirable. People keep saying that and time and time again it's proven wrong. It has been wrong for years, and it will keep being wrong. If large phones were impossible, impractical, and undesirable, people would stop buying them. But they're not. They're demanding them in such large numbers that even Apple has put out a massive, massive phone. Even Nokia put out a massive phone. Samsung started matching the size of their flagship to the size of their largest phone years ago. Every manufacturer has a huge phone, because the majority of the buying public wants a huge phone. But still I hear people say "big phones will never catch on". Guess what? They did catch on, and they're not big phones anymore. After several years of being big phones, they're just called phones now.
- enraged_camel 12y ago
  >>If large phones were impossible, impractical, and undesirable, people would stop buying them. I think you're conflating several different things here. Something can be impractical but still desirable. For example, big SUVs are a pain in the ass -- they are inefficient, difficult to maneuver and hard to park. Yet people still buy them because of a simplistic "bigger is better" mindset. How many people with big SUVs actually use all the space in the vehicle? How many people with half-trucks actually use it to haul big and heavy equipment that would not fit in a smaller car? Yes, big phones are impractical. This is simply common sense: they are difficult to fit inside pockets and impossible to use productively with one hand except maybe by Hafþór Björnsson. And yet they are desirable because "Big" is a status symbol.
  - jordanpg 12y ago
    I don't see the connection with SUVs. They aren't impractical in the same way. For example, for many people (men and women alike), a device above a certain size cannot be carried hands-free. This is a fact. For me, this would be a dealbreaker. It's not about status; it's more closely linked with my unwillingness to type anything longer than a sentence or two on a small keyboard and screen. On the horizon, I see a disconnect between the ideal size of mobile devices and the practicality of carrying them around everywhere. Poolside, hiking, on the toilet, out to dinner. Something will have to change to fix this. I see the solution as new fashion trends that will be ushered in by people who are young -- young enough not to think that, for example, wearing a cell phone on a hip holster is symbolic of greybeard-ness, etc.
    - XorNot 12y ago
      Women carry handbags. There's very obviously a lot of men commenting on this issue who cannot imagine that pocket size has been nonexistent for one genders fashion for a long time now, and so was never a practical constraint on device sizes. Male fashion will just up pocket sizes in response - my dad when he goes traveling has a jacket he can fit a 13" macbook air into.
  - sirkneeland 12y ago
imaginenore 12y ago
> how are people going to be carrying these large devices? There's your startup idea: pants and shirts with large pockets.
Steko 12y ago
Long term you'll have a radio with a battery in your pocket/bag, a wireless bluetooth headset that you issue voice commands to for a lot of things and then another small display either on your wrist and/or in front of your face. You might have a larger dumb display as well; I'd expect eventually those would be flexible, activating some sort of electromagnetic skeleton tentpoles to hold the shape when needed.
sytelus 12y ago
Lot of people with big phones carry them on upper shirt pocket. Another option is belt clip. Nokia did research on this here: http://research.nokia.com/sites/default/files/45590483.pdf http://research.nokia.com/sites/default/files/45590483.pdf

jl6 12y ago

Arm holster is the way to go, like a Pip-boy.

robmcm 12y ago
Isn't the size of your arm/hand coupled to the size of your pocket? After all a pocket that can't fit a hand isn't a pocket.

eunoia 12y ago

I think the pocket problem is a little over played (at least for men). The 6+ fits fine in the pocket of my hipster skinny jeans. The strap idea is interesting. I have a hard time imagining a phone that gets people who aren't already carrying purses to start doing so. In addition to the social awkwardness (man purse?) it's just so much harder to lose something that you keep directly on your person.

freehunter 12y ago

>Clearly carrying large phones in pockets is impossible... impractical... and... undesirable. People keep saying that and time and time again it's proven wrong. It has been wrong for years, and it will keep being wrong. If large phones were impossible, impractical, and undesirable, people would stop buying them. But they're not. They're demanding them in such large numbers that even Apple has put out a massive, massive phone. Even Nokia put out a massive phone. Samsung started matching the size of their flagship to the size of their largest phone years ago. Every manufacturer has a huge phone, because the majority of the buying public wants a huge phone. But still I hear people say "big phones will never catch on". Guess what? They did catch on, and they're not big phones anymore. After several years of being big phones, they're just called phones now.

enraged_camel 12y ago
>>If large phones were impossible, impractical, and undesirable, people would stop buying them. I think you're conflating several different things here. Something can be impractical but still desirable. For example, big SUVs are a pain in the ass -- they are inefficient, difficult to maneuver and hard to park. Yet people still buy them because of a simplistic "bigger is better" mindset. How many people with big SUVs actually use all the space in the vehicle? How many people with half-trucks actually use it to haul big and heavy equipment that would not fit in a smaller car? Yes, big phones are impractical. This is simply common sense: they are difficult to fit inside pockets and impossible to use productively with one hand except maybe by Hafþór Björnsson. And yet they are desirable because "Big" is a status symbol.
- jordanpg 12y ago
  I don't see the connection with SUVs. They aren't impractical in the same way. For example, for many people (men and women alike), a device above a certain size cannot be carried hands-free. This is a fact. For me, this would be a dealbreaker. It's not about status; it's more closely linked with my unwillingness to type anything longer than a sentence or two on a small keyboard and screen. On the horizon, I see a disconnect between the ideal size of mobile devices and the practicality of carrying them around everywhere. Poolside, hiking, on the toilet, out to dinner. Something will have to change to fix this. I see the solution as new fashion trends that will be ushered in by people who are young -- young enough not to think that, for example, wearing a cell phone on a hip holster is symbolic of greybeard-ness, etc.
  - XorNot 12y ago
    Women carry handbags. There's very obviously a lot of men commenting on this issue who cannot imagine that pocket size has been nonexistent for one genders fashion for a long time now, and so was never a practical constraint on device sizes. Male fashion will just up pocket sizes in response - my dad when he goes traveling has a jacket he can fit a 13" macbook air into.
- sirkneeland 12y ago

imaginenore 12y ago

> how are people going to be carrying these large devices? There's your startup idea: pants and shirts with large pockets.

Steko 12y ago

Long term you'll have a radio with a battery in your pocket/bag, a wireless bluetooth headset that you issue voice commands to for a lot of things and then another small display either on your wrist and/or in front of your face. You might have a larger dumb display as well; I'd expect eventually those would be flexible, activating some sort of electromagnetic skeleton tentpoles to hold the shape when needed.

sytelus 12y ago

Lot of people with big phones carry them on upper shirt pocket. Another option is belt clip. Nokia did research on this here: http://research.nokia.com/sites/default/files/45590483.pdf http://research.nokia.com/sites/default/files/45590483.pdf