The Need For Small Phones
When it comes to smartphone screen sizes, there’s no frontier model with a screen smaller than 6". Most of them have at least a 6,3" screen. Long are the times gone that devices are controllable with one hand - especially for folks with small hands. When Apple introduced their iPhone Mini 12 and a year later the iPhone Mini 13 they were on the right track: they hit a niche with a high demand. Now, that the iPhone (17) Air has been released, people once again gather together to show their wish for smaller (i)Phones1. It’s this time of a year that I think a lot about why this group is simply ignored.
The trend of foldable devices is incomprehensible for me. I think this is a push by Samsung, Google and others to introduce new products and some kind of innovation in a fully saturated market. This new product distinguishes itself from the smartphone we are used to. It integrates new innovation (a foldable “screen”), bigger battery capacity, and some other new features, like having a screen on the “outside”. As a daily driver it’s not better or worse than a regular smartphone. It’s only more expensive compared to a classical smartphone, increasing the revenue.
This is also the reason I think is why there are no smartphones with a 4" to 5" “mini” screen: Companies would simply make less money with it. If you can sell a customer a (bigger) smartphone for at least $800 why would you offer a smartphone for $500? The customer needs a smartphone. You’d compete with yourself and lose revenue. It’s harder to upsell your customers the $800 variant when they’re currently using the $500 version that is just sufficient for them as a daily driver. This way, users like me are forced to buy bigger smartphones that are more expensive.
From a business perspective this is a great situation. However, I don’t know if this helps in the long time. The Innovators Dilemma 2 shows that this might be a missed opportunity for a disruptive technology vs. a product update in an established, sustainable field. For all the years, I was an Apple iPhone user. Nowadays, I’d switch instantly to a competitor like Samsung, Google, Nothing, when they release a good sizes smartphone with good specs, performance and pricing. Apple would lose me instantly as a customer thus losing not only $300 ($800-$500) but $800.
Sometimes I wish to get insider information why something like the iPhone Mini and iPhone SE has been discontinued. Maybe someone will let us know when Apple is long gone. For the Foldables I don’t see a bright future. This is my personal, skeptical opinion by someone without any market and user knowledge. I just don’t see any reason why to buy a product between tablet, laptop and smartphone.