I recently bought an iPhone 6. As I travel around the country giving talks on my book Customers Included, I’m asked quite often about my opinion about the user experience. People everywhere, it seems, are deciding whether to upgrade to this new, larger device.
My recommendation: don’t buy an iPhone 6. While it’s a good device, the iPhone 5 is still a better choice.(I wouldn’t have bought the 6, except that Good Todo needed a revised iPhone app to accommodate the larger screen. The new app is great, by the way.)
Of all of the reviews I’ve read of the iPhone 6, I haven’t seen much about the basics of the user experience. Most reviews cover the latest features that will excite gadget-happy early adopters. But from my conversations with customers around the country, many iPhone users are making the buying decision based on the basics.
Thus, here’s my review of the iPhone 6’s basic customer experience:
• The iPhone 6 is too big. It’s an awkward fit into most pockets, if it fits at all. And the larger screen slows down typing, since it requires a noticeably larger range of motion from the thumb. The iPhone 5’s size was ideal, except for users with especially large hands. This raises a question about mobile portability: how big can an iPhone get before it’s no longer a handheld device?(As for the even bigger iPhone 6+ … it’s so large that it’s better considered as an iPad replacement, not a phone.)
• The iPhone 6 is easier to drop. The rounded edges(like the old iPhone 1 design), combined with the thinner shape, make it much easier to fumble… that is, unless you’d like to buy a crash guard, which makes the phone even bigger(see above bullet). You also can’t sit the iPhone 6 on its side, as you can with the iPhone 5.
• Finally, it’s not quite as elegant as previous iPhones. I had the iPhone 6 on my desk while tapping out a text message, and kept hearing a clacking sound. At first I thought the desk wasn’t level, but no: it was the iPhone itself. The iPhone 6 can’t lie flat, due to a protruding camera lens. I’m sure camera techies could tell me all the reasons why the new camera is superior – but an uneven(and large) chassis seems out of step for the historically elegant iPhone line. Other details are a little off-kilter, like the hollow “ping” that reverberates through the device when plugging in a headset. The iPhone 5 felt more solid, more elegant.
Now, I understand there are strong market-based reasons for these design decisions: first and foremost, the increased competition from ever-larger Android devices. So a short-term strategy of catch-up, by making larger iPhones, might temporarily make sense.(For now, it seems to be working, given the strong iPhone 6 sales so far.)
The problem is that a catch-up strategy follows, rather than leads, the market. Making phones bigger and bigger just is not a sustainable strategy – how much larger can phones get?(Will the pizza-sized iPhone 7 need carry straps, like a backpack? Will the full-length-mirror-sized iPhone 8 need wheels, like a rolling suitcase? etc.)
By reacting to competitors, Apple risks losing sight of what customers want in the long run. This is exactly where cell phone manufacturers were in 2007, when the iPhone arrived: cell manufacturers all trying to one-up each other with the latest and greatest features and specs, while ignoring users’ key unmet needs.
I’ve been an iPhone user from the beginning, and the iPhone 6 is the first time my experience has downgraded from the previous model. Seeing how strong its sales are right now, maybe this is just my own experience. But it’s possible to thrive in the short term while losing sight of customers in the long term.(Anyone remember Nokia?)
