Was making a larger iPhone 6 for the best?

The size of the Apple iPhone has been largely up for debate for at least 5 years at this point, which is funny because looking back the 3.5-inch size of the original iPhone’s screen was largely cited as a reason for imminent demise (which still hasn’t happened). After it was clear that the 3.5-inch iPhone was actually quite impressive to the public, talk of the “large” size of the phone died down - until it became an issue again, this time because the size of the phone was actually too small for some people’s preferences. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs stayed firm on his stance that a 3.5-inch display was “perfect” for one-handed use, and Apple had no intentions of ever changing that about the iPhone. If you wanted a larger phone, you had better get used to Android. But of course, nothing was set in stone, and as we can see today the iPhone has undergone a couple of screen size increases at this point - first to a 4-inch display, and most recently to a 4.7-inch and a 5.5-inch display. This year also marks the third anniversary of the release of the Apple iPhone 4S, the last iPhone to hold on to that 3.5-inch ideal. From this point, any new iPhone releases will have a 4-inch screen or larger. What I want to know is how the people who agreed with Jobs’ sentiment are feeling now that “the bigger iPhone” is no longer an idea being tossed around, but a reality. I was once in the “3.5-inch displays are perfect” crowd, and that’s coming from somebody who used larger Android devices first and then moved to iPhone a couple of years later. My EVO 4G and EVO 3D both had 4.3-inch displays, and my Samsung Vibrant had a 4-inch display; when I decided to go to the iPhone I had my doubts, but I was actually rather pleased with the way it felt in the hand. Small, but solid. I was also enamored with iOS at the time, as it seemed much smoother than Android ever had at that point, but the screen size was something I considered noteworthy as well. When the iPhone 5 came out, I wasn’t exactly impressed to the point where I thought I would want to go out and buy one. I didn’t consider a .5-inch screen size increase much to write home about, and with my iPhone 4S only being a year old I really didn’t feel like I was missing out on much. I saw the slight size increase as a way to please the people who had been wishing for an iPhone with a larger screen, but not straying too far away from that initial 3.5-inch ideal that Jobs had set years before. Plus, the iPhone 4S would still be available for two more years for people who didn’t want to switch yet, so there wasn’t much of a reason to panic yet. However, with the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, I think there’s a little more reason to panic now that there’s big potential for the brief 4-inch screen size to be retired within the next two years when the iPhone 5s phases out. Smartphones haven’t yet reached a phase where it’s cool to shrink down in size - everybody is still moving up. I’m not saying that the potential for a smaller iPhone is out of the question after the iPhone 5s is no longer supported, but if we’re going by current mobile trends then things look bleak for people who appreciated the iPhone specifically for it’s smaller size. So was it really a good idea for Apple to give the iPhone such a big jump when it comes to screen size? To be quite honest, I think it’s what Apple needed right now. Personally I am not thrilled with the idea of a larger iPhone, but I can recognize that it was still a good move for Apple. With the iPhone 5s and 5c still supported for at least the next two years, this buys Apple some time and likely more customers by having phones on just about all ends of the spectrum. This was the “big” iPhone people had been waiting for. A .5-inch size increase was nice, but comparitively speaking it really wasn’t what people who wanted a “big” iPhone would have been looking for. An iPhone with a 4-inch screen is still on the smaller side of the scale in the smartphone world. I do worry about the impact it will have in the future, but I supposed that’s something to worry about in the future. I hope that Apple will find a way to keep the people who liked the smaller iPhones happy, kind of like BlackBerry has been able to keep their physical QWERTY customers happy. For now, though, I think Apple made the right decision with the big size increase in the iPhone 6 models.