How Big Can Smartphone Screens Become?
Smartphones are now the dominant type of phones on sale in many markets around the globe.
In North America, Europe and North East Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan, smartphones are in the process of completely taking over the mobile phone market.
How Smart Are Smartphones?
Smartphones have a number of advantages compared to increasingly obsolete cellular phones, such as the ability to surf the Internet, conduct video calling or conferencing, do voice-activated navigation, download apps for music and movies and follow the stock market investments in real time.
However, there are increasingly sleek tablets that are capable of doing all these things as well, except phone calling. Tablets with 7-inch to 11-inch screens—measured diagonally—are selling like hot cakes around the world.
This has made some electronics giants wonder how big they can go with smartphone screens in order to add more functionality to them and increase their market share.
The Birth of Giant Smartphones
Electronics giants like Samsung have introduced smartphones such as Galaxy Note, which has clocked over one million in sales and hasn't even hit some large markets such as the United States yet.
The Samsung Galaxy Note has a 5.3 inch screen, and one can call it a giant smartphone or a small tablet. Giant smartphones approaching a 5-inch screen size are likely to become increasingly common and fashionable as consumers absorb more video content on the go and are looking for a marriage between their tablet and cell phone needs.
Giant smartphones can also use customizable toolbars and sleek start pages such as Zugo Bing to enjoy a fuller and richly detailed Web experience.
Are Consumers Prepared for a Gadget Invasion?
It is unclear how the market will evolve in the next 10-20 years. Will consumers be comfortable with a desktop computer at work, a laptop computer on the go, a smartphone on their waists and a couple of tablets in their households for their wives and children?
With so many gadgets overwhelming the consumer, many will wonder how they can reduce their gadget burden, so they can spend more time with their family and less time juggling between all these fancy gadgets.
This is where smartphones with large screens such as Samsung Galaxy Note will make a deep impact. Many consumers might actually forgo tablets when they see that a 5-inch smartphone does not appear too awkward putting on their ear while they are walking in the neighborhood.
But can smartphones exceed the current maximum 5.3 inch size?
Can there be smartphones with 6- or even 7-inch screens?
It is not impossible to imagine that they can, since 10 years ago, no one could have imagined Dell or Toshiba making18.4-inch or even 20-inch laptops, but they did.
Similarly, a smartphone with a 6- or 7 -inch screen may be introduced, but talking on such a large phone will be truly awkward if not downright ridiculous.
Most likely, 5- to 5.5-inch or thereabout will be the maximum screen size for smartphones in the future.