There are times when I despise being associated with Apple

No, this isn’t a rant about the company.  It’s a rant about some of companies customers (aka, the Apple community).  You know the ones that have that air of fanaticism (that the company can do no wrong OR believe their opinion of what ALL Apple customers want, are based in part on a limited set of ideals).

The iPhone 6 Plus represents a perfect example of this.  In some Apple users eyes, they cannot understand why any sane Apple user, would want one of those (even the iPhone 6’s size is pushing it for some of these folks).

Sure, there was a time when Apple’s largest screen size was 3.5″ (iPhone 4/4S) while other companies were quickly rolling out screen sizes larger than 4.5″.  And when Samsung first introduced their 5+” Note phablets, the jokes went around about having to hold that large a slab to the side of your face.  Apple itself does not like having the 6 Plus referred to as a phablet (they’ve already requested employees/contractors to not use that term) even though it is exactly that.

The line Apple touted during that timeframe was they designed their phones to be able to be used comfortably with one hand (that most peoples thumbs could reach every part of the display).  This is a completely valid design consideration at the expense of screen real estate.  On the engineering side though, Apple also had their reasons for not jumping onto the bandwagon early on.  It’s about design trade offs; battery life, image quality, displays that met Apple’s definition of Retina Display, working within the software constraints present in iOS at that time when it came to resolution.

And some Apple fans, bought wholly into this piece of carefully crafted marketing as if it were gospel.  This isn’t any better than that time when Bill Gates famously said that no one would ever want more than 640K of RAM in their PC.  Corporations including Apple, will come up with PR that suits their needs.  Customers need to occasionally have to read between the lines.

Steve Jobs himself was famous for dismissing something (because the tech or something else wasn’t quite ready yet); like when he dismissed video on the old scroll wheel iPod (stating something to the effect that who the hell would want to watch video on a tiny screen) but the company eventually released the 5th generation iPod in 2005 that had the ability to play back video.  Or even better yet, the transition of the Mac platform to Intel when Apple spent many years doing commercials like the following while secretly, they had been keeping an Intel version of Mac OS X working in their labs alongside the PowerPC version as a just in case:

Apple like any other big business, has their own set of agendas.  And often times, marketing and PR messages need to be taken with a grain of salt.  The whole thing with dismissing larger phone factors, was likely a very Steve Jobs sort of thing.  And his stubbornness sometimes is right on the mark, but others times, weren’t exactly correct.  Like he was against an SDK for the iPhone and the rest of the management team had to keep harping on him to the point where he disgustingly gave in and told the team to do whatever the hell they wanted.

The curated App Store would have never been (as well the growth of the entire ecosystem).  The exact same thing applies to the larger (4+” sized) iPhones.  A portion of the community has been brainwashed by the earlier messages while completely ignoring the fact that there is a large market (albeit, international outside the US) which Apple was missing out on.  It’s an ignorant and self-centered view.

IMHO, the iPhone 5C/5S form factor iteration was long in the tooth.  To me, that is when the jump to a 4.7″ screen size should have been instituted (as opposed to maintaining the 4″ in the 5C and 5S) since most of the above constraints should not have been an issue in 2013.  The 5C should have maintained the 5’s 4″ screen size while the 5S moved the bar upwards to 4.7″.  The simple point I’m getting at is that Apple needs to have a range of form factors/screen sizes in order to meet a range of consumer requirements.

There was a time when “one size fits all” worked (the early days of this whole multitouch smart device phenomena).  But as Apple’s customer base continues expanding,  not everyone wants a Ford Model A that is black.  And from a shareholder perspective, Apple was giving up a lucrative market in the 4.5+” to 5.7″ product range.

I’m not going to deny there won’t be some cannibalization happening between the 6 Plus and the iPad mini (the joke is the 6 Plus is actually the mini iPad mini).  But in some demographics (Asian countries are a perfect example with a mobile commuting via rail society), a larger device that can do most everything is the preferred form factor.  Apple was missing out on that piece of the pie for at least 2 years now.  That is substantial revenues/profits left on the table for the competition to eat up.

Reading some tech/Apple sites though, it reminds me of why I do not engage in most online forums now.  There are just way too much idiots who think their opinions, are the only one that is correct.  Myself, I’ve been using Apple products (computing wise) almost exclusively since 1993.  Before that, I was pretty much a PC user (though instead of DOS or Windows 3, I was using IBM’s OS/2 2.x).  The most annoying part of being an Apple user back then were some parts of the community (the ones that gave almost every Mac user a bad reputation for their over the top obnoxious behavior/beliefs when it came to “evangelizing” the platform/company).

Brands and products are very personal choices.  My own brand loyalty when it comes to Apple for example, is for my own specific reasons.   And while I will opine about why it’s my preference, I’m also not going to go out of my way to evangelize those reasons while coming across as a complete asshat in the process.  And anyone who knows me well, will know that I’m the first to be critical of the company when it’s deserved (hint – I can’t wait until OS X 10.10 Yosemite is released because I have a few choice words to say which I can’t now since I’m under the NDA).

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are natural progressions and evolution of the iPhone product line.  I myself really like my 5S.  The size and weight are just right.  But there are many times when the screen size also feels small.  Likewise, I wasn’t going to temporarily switch to an Android phone (my main beef is what information Google is going to data mine continuously from my usage – thanks but no thanks).  Thus the larger screen sizes, are something I welcome.

I primarily use my phone for data (rarely voice).  I’ve already opined before that it wouldn’t have hurt Apple to go just a tad bit wider (which would’ve allowed moving to a larger screen but with a different aspect ratio).  Part of the design rationale with the 5/5S maintaining the same width as 4/4S was the whole one handed/average thumb being able to reach the opposite side of the screen test.

The phone ended up having to have this distinctive longer ice cream sandwich bar look (long phone is long) to it (compared to the 4/4S) due to Apple’s design ethos in terms of the top/bottom bezel balance in relation to the two side bezels (there is a minimum width that it has to have due to the home/touch ID button size).  Going from my 4S to the 5S was initially jarring because it just looked weird being that tall.  Now though, it’s the exact opposite (I still have my 4S as a WiFi media device) where the 4S display, is just too small.

The 6 and more so, the 6 Plus will have that same effect from a size perspective.  Most Apple only users have been used to this very constrained display sizes (whereas anyone in the Android space, will have used a larger variety of form factors).  I myself feel that the iPhone 6 is the sweet spot in terms of size.  It really isn’t that much larger compared to the 5/5C/5S form factor.  The 6 Plus is most definitely larger though when compared to a 5/5C/5S.  But it’s far smaller when compared to the iPad mini.  But the 6 Plus has the iPad’s coveted multi-pane landscape mode (which squarely places the 6 Plus into that transition between phone and tablet; i.e. the phablet moniker which Apple doesn’t want used for the 6 Plus).

As far as thinness goes (in relation to the 5S), this is probably one of the first times that I agree that a further slimming, needed to happen.  The reason I feel this way it that the slimmer design plays a huge role in the usability side of things with the overall larger size of the device.  It makes it easier to hold which makes it easier to use.  The rounded edges also help in giving it a more organic feel.  Apple also finally is using 2.5-dimension glass (the display is slightly curved as it meets the sides to make swipe gestures smoother/easier) which have been in use on many other smart phones for awhile now.

And this leads back to my issue with some Apple users who need to purchase a clue.  One size does not fit all.  What I use should be of no concern to you.  If you were one of those who had a philosophical issue during the time that Apple refused to play in the 4″+ display size space, and now have to eat your words because Apple now has these exact same sizes, that isn’t my problem.  I myself am not enamored with having a nearly 5-5.5″ block being pressed to my head during those rare times I do use my phone for calls, but it’s not that big a deal in my book as compared to the larger display (and in the case of the 6 Plus, landscape mode, optical image stabilization, and substantial battery life).