Business card-sized Japanese phone bucks the giant-phone trend

I think the're many more like you, and that Apple is aware of it. My theory is that they don't want to cannibalize watch sales, or basically regard the watch or wearable market as their future, and the Apple Watch as device to cement their leadership role in this market early on. I mean it works for them, they are the number one wearbales brand now.

It's not only watches, the're the headphones and maybe AR glasses in the future, a distributed wearable system if you'd combine them. That's where things are going I think.

If the'd have continued pushing sff phones (pocket watches), their real watches might not have gotten this traction.

The decision by Apple is either based solely on making more money short-term/mid-term while ignoring a part of their customer base, or waiting for the right entry point with introduing a new bigger full screen but overall smaller model.

Many things Apple did in the early days weren't making sense from a market standpoint, like giving away software for free. At least that's what MS would have told you at that time.

That's why it's hard even for Apple to really price in the economic long-term cost of not supporting high-income and higly influental niche groups - there isn't only monocausality to consider when calculating ROI.

I use my watch mostly at work for 2FA and to passively monitor my notifications. When I need to respond, I'd rather use my phone, so adding cellular to the watch doesn't really add much value for me.

I think WASM is still in an early phase, we'll probably have to wait for 2020 for it to catch on. It still needs: GC/direct DOM access, threads, and Javascript module integration, in my opinion: https://webassembly.org/docs/future-features/ Plus, even the MVP is only supported globally by 78% of the browsers out there: https://caniuse.com/#search=webassembly

Thing will get very interesting very quickly once WASM 2.0, basically, is created and it support is around 90%. But before that, it's kind of early to declare victory :)

I'd argue that most apps are rather passive when it comes to displaying stuff, don't have to crunch numbers and don't manage a lot of data. So an 80s BASIC engine would be enough for it, if the APIs are done well (or 90s Tcl/Tk).

Games are an entirely different matter, of course. I don't see a lot of stuff in between.

That is, if you have an 12" iPad Pro, you're unlikely to also have a 12" MacBook, as they're devices of similar size and portability, and for "normal" people, also similar capability.

However, a phone is a different portability class. You have a phone with you at times where you do not bring an iPad. No amount of devices will help me when I do not have them with me. Even if I am at home, my phone is in my pocket, which an iPad, laptop or desktop never will be.

Therefore, I believe that the question is more about preference than about device overlap for phones.

But yes, you are right—anecdotes and opinions, rather than data.

But I think this tends to better explain why mini tablets aren't especially popular than anything about phone size. Large or small, phones are still a pocketable device that people have with them much of the time. I use my phone a lot for things that I could, in principle, do better on some other device but that other device either doesn't have a cellular connection or it's just not with me--even if it's just up in my office.

However iPhones (and some Android handsets too) do support HDMI over their data port. You'd need to buy a cable but they can be got for ~£15 (though you'd be looking more at £40/£50 if you want an official branded one - but I've found 3rd party dongles generally work just as well on iPhones).

I probably use it once a month. The input latency and the small size (compared to a notepad) prevents it from replacing the spiral notebook I carry.

I also understimated how much I'd hate the samsung crap that's installed, and the edge to edge screen is more trouble than it's worth--I'm always accidentally clicking something while holding it.

Almost no one wanted headphone sockets actually removed because anyone who actually wanted bluetooth already had the capability, and countless surveys reveal a wish to keep them. Most recently Oneplus finding 80%+ of their customers wanted to keep it, so their next phone removed it. Almost every company has now followed suit, so it's damn clear they are not researching the market, unless it's to ascertain the extent of what they can get away with.

Same with Google+, almost no one wanted it, yet for several years there was insistence one would have it.

So I maintain the presence or absence of a product or service is often little or nothing to do with market sales. Or one can believe in perfect markets and perfect filling of opportunities.

My own circle of friends and their families must be ridiculously unrepresentative because the SE seems to have an outsize presence, and there's remarkably few huge flagships of any make. There's a couple who still hope every year that Samsung see sense and bring out another S Mini.

The 5s has the venerable status of being not only small, but one of the oldest currently-supported smartphones. At over 5 years old, it can still run respectably with iOS 12.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/0S0AAOSwaB5Xp-lT/s-l300.jpg

Curious to hear what carrier you use it on. 2G options in the US at least are severely limited.

If they made a small phone like this with a fat battery (not because I'd use it a lot, but because hotspotting takes a fair bit of juice) I'd use it as my main phone.

Then carry something like a Microsoft Surface or convertible Chromebook in my bag, which you can easily whip out if you need to use Google maps or something that favours a bigger screen.

Seems like a no brainer when the traditional laptop category is going more portable with convertible form factors, and tablet are getting even better at productivity. But maybe I'm missing something :\