Large Screen Optimizations

It's interesting to see Apple finally battle Android OEM's in the giant phone space.

To my perceptions, Apple's strategy to justifying the larger screen is to fit *more* of whatever content you're working with on the screen at once. This can be seen in the two columned landscape view. This can also be seen in the Messages app, for example, where contacts' photos are displayed. This is really smart, especially considering that the brain can't actually multitask. There is some argument for more than one window, but I'm not convinced of the user experience of that on a phone screen: A laptop, yes, a tablet, maybe, but not a phone.

On the other hand, Samsung and LG have opted for putting more apps on one screen as the justification. Samsung has opted for windowed apps on their Note devices, which are their truly "large" screen devices. This "true multitasking" is more reminiscent of traditional desktop operating systems, and thus sits better with the "windows types" as I refer to them. Sony and LG support certain apps working in small windows, but they are not nearly as well developed as Samsung's offering, and honestly I'm okay with that. LG and Samsung also support a split screen function, which I actually think works okay, though I argue that given proper app store support a la Apple, this split screen wouldn't be necessary.

Google, in partnership with Motorola, on the other hand (yes, I have three hands) seems to have made no justifications for the big screen. Stock Android 5.0 is as Lollipop on the Nexus 6 as it is on, say, the Nexus 4, 5, or 7. This is not the right strategy for a truly consumer device, but the argument could be made that the Nexus program has always, and still is, about developers and OEM's not consumers.

How do you want your large screen to be used? Do you even want a large screen phone? Let me know in the comments.