image: http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s3-vs-apple-iphone-4s-82191/

People with small things will tell you the size doesn’t matter. The design conscious iphone users have been saying this in the last year as their uber cool piece of kits remains small in screen size. As every manufacturer is producing a device with a larger screen last year Apple opted not to increase the screen size of the iphone. They just made a slightly better phone than the previous one, stuck an S on the end and introduced Siri. So underwhelming was the phone (compared to the hype, although the camera had a good make over) that Siri rode the wave of fad for a while as tech writers couldn’t think of any other way to fill their quota of positive Apple related news. (Looking at you TechCrunch and Mashable)

If a fraction of the rumor mill is to be believed it does seem as though Apple will this year be giving the iphone a larger screen, at least a four incher. By comparison to other flagship phones this is at the small end of the scale, but it may mean that the body size does not have to change.

Developers will tell you that the size will not change. The ease of iphone / ipad app development is thanks in part to the fact that unlike the chaos of Android, the screen size, the dimensions, are set in stone. Well perhaps Apple will upset a few developers, as they really have to make the screen larger in order to keep their users happy. (It appears more and more likely that a 7” - neither here nor there “tweener” - iPad (mini) will come out, so why not make it a double whammy for developers?)

I say they need to keep their users happy, and here’s why; a smartphone is not just a phone, it is an entertainment centre, and as time goes on this will become more and more the case. Consider that 400 million YouTube videos are watched every day on a mobile. Moreover 78% of videos watched on mobile are done so using iphones. Recent figures from Juniper forecasts that 240 millions users (which to me seems low) will stream TV using their smartphone by 2014. Also games, nine of the top ten paid itunes apps are games.
 
If people want a small phone then get the Sony Xperia X10, but if - as iphone users do - people want to play games and watch videos then the days of the 3.5 inch screen are surely number.

By: Lindsay Butler+