T3’s Jeff Parsons sizes up Apple and Samsung’s next moves

It’s fair to say the last few iPhones have been a tad predictable on the eye. Slightly bumped specs and slightly smaller bezels have been the order of the day, with the likes of Touch ID and Siri adding innovation internally.

Samsung, by contrast, has been Gatling-gunning out new blowers with all sorts of features and form factors. Device after device arrives from South Korea with different screen sizes, styluses, heart-rate monitors, tin openers, you name it.

It’s two vastly different approaches: one that tells you what you want rather than asking, the other giving you so much choice it can’t maintain consistent quality.

But Sammy ‘s scattergun approach certainly pays off in terms of overall sales: it’s now the leading global smartphone supplier, shipping 167 million of its many, many units in the last two quarters compared to Apple’s 78.9 million of its more refined roster, according to IDC research from July. Profitability is another matter, of course.

So there’s a big potential market for a larger iPhone, then, just as there was for a smaller iPad, despite Apple’s initial prevarication. It would seem to make more sense, in fact, than persisting with the iPhone 5C, which is all but identical to the 5S physically and only a tad cheaper.

With Apple’s “imperial phase”, where it could do no wrong, over, a size-mic shift in direction would be sensible. And if anyone can maintain quality control over multiple sizes, it’s Apple.