Per TechCrunch (per WSJ), Apple to Market Larger-Screen Phones.
Our thoughts:
It is no secret that we are fans of Android phones, particularly those made by Samsung. Whether it is the Galaxy S4 or the "phablets", our reaction to iPhones is, well, to laugh.
In its quest to monopolize the mobile phone business, Apple has rightly identified one of the areas in which Android phones have claimed a stake of superiority over the iPhone: the screen's surface area.
Once you have used any of the Samsung phones/phablets, using an iPhone is obviously a downgrade in terms of the viewing area. So we do not blame Apple for going after the Android market in this way.
Battery Life
One of the only weaknesses of the Samsung phones with larger screens is related to its battery life. The same is inversely correlated to the size of the phone. Herein lies one of the few weaknesses of the Samsung phones when compared with the iPhone.
First a personal note:
In addition to a Samsung phablet, we also have an iPad Mini (9.7-inch screen size). It is obvious that the battery on the iPad Mini is better than the one on the Samsung phablet. Why? Because it does not lose charge as quickly despite the fact that the screen on the iPad Mini is larger than that of the phablet. Perhaps it is also related to the difference in processors. Nevertheless, Apple should continue to use or improve upon its current battery offerings.
Text-Input
Another area where the Galaxy phones are better in our estimation, has to do with text-input.
Along with a larger screen, the input area for text on the Galaxy S4, for example (5-inch HD screen) is greater than that of the iPhone 5s (4-inch, diagonal Retina display, 1135x640 resolution, 326 ppi). However, this section is related with the actual input of text.
Whereas typing text on the iPhone has to be done on a character-by-character basis, the Android provides a much more elegant solution. Whether it is the Samsung keyboard or other applications such as Swype, text entry is faster and easier on an Android.
Conclusion
These are but two areas in which the iPhone should improve to truly rival the latest generation of Samsung phones/phablets until, that is, the next wave of Samsung innovation.
While offering larger screens is Apple's way of attempting to delve into and shrink the Android market, its iPhone innovations should go beyond the ones described here to truly count as such.
[As we wrote and conducted research for this post, we became aware of applications available at the App Store which replicate Samsung's keyboard and Swype. Considering both phones out of the box, however, our conclusion remains].
This Just In
We came across this picture on the WSJ Facebook page to drive our point home:
