Sometimes I feel like a broken record MP3 player but when you know you are right and you are a student of history, you see the mistakes companies make before they do. On July 8th of 2010 I told you that larger Android devices would be a threat to Apple. The point was that Apple is repeating its mistake from the eighties where it had its own hardware competing against many manufacturers. At the time price/performance was the Achilles heel of Cupertino but now the challenge is not only price/performance but form factor.
Apple can’t possibly come out with every size phone and anticipate market needs but they could have done the obvious and come out with a wider phone after reading my piece which is exactly 2.5 years old today.
Now Barclays estimates the phablet market will grow to $135B in 2015. Where is Apple in this game? Nowhere, unless you count the iPad mini which isn’t a phablet but a slightly smaller tablet which is bigger than most of its competition.
I have been consistent about my thoughts on the matter as you can see from my past entries:
- Woz, I Agree. Now What if the Samsung Galaxy Note Ran iOS?
- And Then it Hit Me, Open Always Wins
- Apple Screwed Again?
- Samsung Galaxy Note Shipping at a Million a Month
- How Apple Can Slow Samsung Down
- Why Apple Needs an iLane Bryant Phone
There are finally reports that Apple will come out with a larger iPhone and it is about time. The company can’t predict every trend but to me it was an obvious mistake to make the iPhone 5 taller and not wider as I have mentioned before. It is indeed surprising that the company has been so slow to react to this market opportunity.