Remember back in the good old days when everybody was wanting to make all of our cellphones smaller? People want them to get bigger again, or says a new survey.
The fine people at Strategy Analytics just published a report that found almost 90% of smartphone owners upgrade to phones with larger screens when it comes time for their biennial upgrade. The trend is seen in both the US and the UK with respondents finding the sweet spot to be around 4 to 4.5 inches.
What’s driving the move to giant screens? Consumers want the larger displays for better web browsing, as well as for gaming and video.
It’s not all about the size of the screen though, as respondents also wanted the device to remain thin. This can be somewhat of a problem as increased screen real estate usually demands that the device be thicker. The study didn’t say what the sweet spot for thickness was.
Breaking it down into demographics, it was found that females are more likely to choose smaller devices than their male counterparts. Both genders, however, want the phone to still remain small enough to fit into their “purses and pockets.”
The device demographic is also interesting as Android owners are far more likely to upgrade to a larger screen than iPhone owners. Of course, this could be due to iPhone owners being happy with their phones and not wanting to upgrade a new device as frequently as Android owners do.
Samsung is definitely the king of large phone displays with its Galaxy Note “phablet.” The screen size sits at a massive (for a phone) 5.3 inches.
Strategy Analytics cautioned companies to be wary of introducing larger phones. They said that for consumers to embrace these larger displays, the phones must remain light and thin.
With the rumored iPad Mini possibly hitting stores later this year, it makes you wonder if Apple is going to delve into the very market that Steve Jobs cautioned against. The iPhone 5 could very well be a compliment to the iPad Mini and have similar screen sizes. We’ll just have to wait and see.