It’s funny how things have a way of cycling. Fashion, fads and trends return from the grave, spend some time in the spotlight and then crawl back into their tomb. There are a number of examples, but this week Apple stands with the most notoriety, as it continues the trend toward gigantic phones.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will make their debut Friday in the United States and dwarf the iPhone 5 in features, but primarily in size. Apple made a considerable size increase: The iPhone 6 Plus screen measures 5.5 inches compared to the 4-inch screens on the iPhone 5C and 5S. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the only phone with a larger display at 5.7 inches. Samsung and Apple are arguably the two largest players in the mobile phone market and continue to define the market by increasing the size with each new model.
In the beginning, mobile phones were huge because they were state of the art and completely new; size was a matter of function. As technology progressed, the phones became smaller. After some time with minimal phones such as the RAZR, LG Chocolate and the LG Envy, phone providers began increasing features and size. Some might not call it a full evolutionary circle of gigantic phones because it’s more like comparing apples and oranges, but we’re on our way to carrying our phones on our hips like a superhero with a utility belt.
It was understandable at first, with some of the first iPhones and smartphones fitting nicely in pant pockets, but now the battle for screen size has gotten out of hand. It encroaches on tablets and causes more damage and lost phones than ever before.
The iPad mini has a screen that measures 7.9 inches. That’s only 2.4 inches larger than the screen on the new iPhone 6 Plus. Just as Black Friday encroaches on Thanksgiving, the phones are encroaching on tablets and will soon cease to be two separate entities. The two devices can hardly have separate titles because they have equivalent features with the exception of cell service. Where is the line to be drawn between a tablet and phone—or do we want to be walking around while holding a tablet up to our ear? The increase in size needs to stop or soon there won’t be a difference between the iPhone and iPad and the number of broken and lost phones will continue to grow.
Let me be the first to say that there are not a lot of pants or shorts with the pocket space to accommodate the new iPhone 6. So, instead of phones being directly on our person, they might be in a backpack, purse or in our hand. This correlates with more misplaced phones because of the split-second memory lapses and more broken screens because of the constant drops. The pant, jacket or shirt pocket may not have seemed like the safest place before, but it’s the White House compared to our hands.
The cycle from the first gigantic phones doesn’t exactly mimic what we have today, but regardless, size has returned. It’s giving us incredible features while smothering the original purpose of the cell phone. I know we won’t give up the features, so hopefully technology’s evolution can decrease the size just like it increased it.
