Bigger iphones are not better, say women

APPLE has been criticised by women for designing iphones which are “too big” for the average female hand.

Campaigners reacted angrily to the news that the company will discontinue the iphone SE, which has a smaller screen. They say women need the option to buy smaller devices.

The screen of the new iphone X ranges from 5.8in to 6.5in wide, compared to 4in for the SE.

Caroline Criado Perez, the feminist campaigner behind the Millicent Fawcett statue in Parliament Square and the Jane Austen £10 note, said she developed repetitive strain injury from an iphone 6 which was too big, but it “went as soon as I switched to an SE”.

“Women buy more iphones than men,” she added. “It baffles me that Apple doesn’t design with our bodies in mind. We should be furious; we are paying as much as men for a product that doesn’t work as well for us.”

Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, said the “default standard” in technology “is always that which suits a man”. She added: “Companies have got to get better at recognising that their idea of normal should account for all their customers.”

Others suggested the problem stems from Apple not hiring as many women in leadership roles as it does men.

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, said: “Apple’s UK headquarters has a gender pay gap of 24 per cent, and men’s bonuses are 57 per cent higher than women’s.

“Until companies like Apple have women represented equally at senior levels, as in all areas of business, politics and the public sector – women’s needs are an afterthought.

“The boys at Apple are obviously obsessed with size, but sometimes performance matters too.”

An Apple representative did not respond when contacted for comment.