Bigger iPhone odds for 2013

I’m of two minds about this one. On the one hand, Apple’s made a ton of noise about the iPhone 5′s taller-but-not-wider screen, and how intentionally it was designed that way to hold onto Steve Jobs’ long-held tenet that a smartphone must be a device that can be used in one hand. And yet… Samsung, Motorola, and others have made big inroads in the smartphone market by introducing devices with much larger (aka, wider) screens. You can’t use them with a single hand, but customers don’t seem to mind. From the consummate designer’s point of view, bigger may not always be better. But from the user’s point of view, in this case size does seem to matter.

Scuttlebutt wants you to believe that the next iPhone could be a 5″ device, stretching out the width of the screen to more readily compete with Samsung’s Galaxy lineup. The problem is, Apple likes to be known as a trendsetter instead of a follower, although recent history has proven that they do pay attention to market trends and respond accordingly. And there’s no doubt that if they were to release a 5″ iPhone, that thing would sell like nobody’s business.

My feeling is that a wider-screen phone is something Apple would very much like to do. The problem is the iPhone 5. With that tall, narrow, 4″ screen, Apple has painted itself into a corner. Introducing a wider-screened iPhone would raise the ire of iPhone 5 owners who’d feel cheated after buying into Apple’s “nobody wants a phone so wide you have to use it with two hands” rhetoric. On top of that, releasing a bigger iPhone — after the competition has been selling phones of that size for years — would make Apple look like it’s all out of innovation and has taken to copying the ideas of others.

Then again, Apple has one of the best PR departments on the planet, so I’m sure they could put a positive PR spin on it.

Bigger iPhone odds for 2013: 1:3. I’m not convinced it’s happening at all, or that it will arrive this year if so. But if the market for 5″ phones keeps growing, Apple will have no choice but to answer the call.