iPhone 6 Plus : The Phablet Era

I woke up the morning of 23rd September - our wedding anniversary - with two big surprises. A huge orchid and a spot in the pre-order queue so that I could pick up my iPhone 6 Plus the day of the launch. Having been with an iPhone 4 for the last 4 years (as it was the company device we were given in Japan and it was not possible to use the company SIM in a different device due to the way contracts are written in Japan) this was going to be a major change.

You can see the excitement in my eyes.

The Apple Store in central Madrid is a beautiful space, loaded with positive energy and huge smiles that Friday. We just queued for 15' during which we met some of my best friends, who were dropping by to check the new iPhones out.

Tone of security guards surrounding the table, where all the new iPhones were laid out waiting for their owners to come. Interestingly enough, by 9PM they were not yet sold out. Nervous moments during the unboxing and there it was, my new golden iPhone. The device to double as phone and tablet. Champagne gold, the perfect accessory.

When you show up with an iPhone 6Plus, people are eager to give their feedback i.e. too big, doesn't fit in my pocket, hard to use. What do you think about it? Is this just a fad? Or likely to stay with us?

Take a look back and remember the screen of your 8210. I bet it now looks ridiculously small. Even Jobs spoke against large screens back in 2010 "you can't get your hand around it ... no one's going to buy that" [REF] As technology evolves, both in terms of device and radio access technology capabilities, the screen size is growing. I don't see sufficient reasons for it to stop, mainly because:

1. Devices with larger screen sizes, faster processors, more efficient energy consumption, battery technology and support for new technologies are now available at a variety of price points, making them accessible to the mass market.

2. Operators invest on rolling out new technologies (like LTE aka 4G) because they enable improved spectral efficiency, so you can achieve higher link rates and lower latency, on the same spectrum. This makes it possible for operators to compete in quality (instead of price) so they can gain subscribers without hurting profitability. However, they are also making a huge investment, that needs to be capitalized on.

3.  Content providers (e.g. youtube, web) make the most of the improved capabilities by increasing the richness of content.

With  high-resolution webs (since 95' average web page size has increase 100 times [REF], since 2007 it's a factor 5x) and specially video (4K anyone?) driving the data traffic growth in the next years, it is easy to see how the big bucks for the Operators are very much associated with large screens on the mobile devices, as this empowers the end-user to enjoy a good quality of experience while watching video, in a mobile environment.

Like it or not, phablets are here to stay and rather likely to become mainstream. Of course, iPhones are to be less and less mainstream, because of their increasing price point. But there are alternatives, like ONEPLUS ONE with comparable quality at 1/3 the price - the latter being Enrique's choice since last May.

What are you going for?

Via Ericsson Mobility Report June 2014