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Chronicles

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The iPhone Takes to the Big Screen

The world's most popular smartphone becomes significantly faster, thinner and lighter this week, while gaining a larger, 4-inch screen—all without giving up battery life, comfort in the hand and high-quality construction.  —  [ See post to watch video ]

AllThingsD Walter S. Mossberg

Context & Ripple Effects

A year after the speculation cycle captured in 9to5Mac's 'The new iPhone...' report, the reviews have landed, and the verdict across a unusually wide syndicated footprint — AnandTech, Daring Fireball, the New York Times, MacRumors, TechCrunch, GigaOM and ReadWriteWeb all carried versions on or about September 18, 2012 — is that Apple changed two things at once: the screen and the silicon.

The 4-inch display ends Apple's long-held 3.5-inch stance, answering the larger-screen Android competition without giving up one-handed use or battery life, while AnandTech's SunSpider numbers put the new A6 chip ahead of Intel's Atom Z2460 — a benchmark comparison that says as much about Intel as about Apple. iSuppli's virtual teardown pegs the bill of materials at roughly $199, right at the subsidized price.

First-order effects

  • Apple finally concedes the screen-size argument to Android handset makers, but on its own terms — a taller 4-inch panel that keeps the phone usable in one hand, removing rivals' most visible differentiator.
  • Carriers get their first full-fledged LTE iPhone, and MacRumors' review roundup calls the network speed 'stunningly fast,' making this the upgrade driver for the holiday quarter.

Second-order effects

  • With iSuppli estimating a ~$199 bill of materials against a $199 subsidized price, Apple's margin depends on manufacturing scale and carrier subsidies — putting pressure on component suppliers to cut costs each production ramp.
  • AnandTech showing the A6 beating Intel's Atom Z2460 forces the benchmark conversation onto Intel's turf: low-power x86 now has a direct ARM comparison point in mainstream reviews.

Third-order effects

  • If screens grow every generation from here, 'bigger but still one-handed' becomes the design constraint the whole industry optimizes around, and display suppliers gain leverage in the bill of materials.
  • Mobile ARM chips benchmarking competitively against Intel's low-power line points toward a structural squeeze at the bottom of the computing market, where phone-class silicon starts setting the performance-per-watt bar.

The trend: Smartphones are converging on larger screens and LTE as table stakes, with Apple's annual cadence turning each iPhone launch into a simultaneous test of display supply chains, carrier subsidies, and chip benchmarks against the PC establishment.

Related: The new iPhone... · New, larger iPhones to offer one-handed mode · The iPhone Takes

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