The fact that Curtis' ridiculous piece saw so much play is an indictment of the gullibility and desire to believe of too many. It has zero technical accuracy, nor does it even seem to consider the idea that people use their phones for many other things than typing while walking, one handed. Personally that is by far the least common way I use my device, and if every other use suffered for that one possible use I would declare it a terrible decision.
The original iPhone had a 3.5" display because that was a huge display at the time. Some short-sighted simplicity of the API bound them to it. This new form factor ("fragmentation!") is in all senses a hack, though it brings them in line with the aspect ratio that competitors have been using for years.
From the original link - "When you first see a phone with a 4-inch or larger screen"...
Just to be clear those 4-inch or larger screen phones Dustin complained about all use a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio.
As one aside -- I noted during the Verge live coverage that they, time and time again, pointed out where Apple was introducing features that look like or operate like competitors. I have to imagine that has something to do with the Gruber/Arment tag team that tried to smear them for failing to always point out when people follow Apple.
The iPad to alternate tablet market is more like 6:4, at worst 7:3, pre-Nexus 7. 1/10th or less is utter nonsense.
Google is a $220 billion dollar company with great earnings based upon people "using the internet". Your comment on Google not winning with the Fire makes the assumption that Google only wins if you use their search engine. Not really.
The original iPhone had a 3.5" display because that was a huge display at the time. Some short-sighted simplicity of the API bound them to it. This new form factor ("fragmentation!") is in all senses a hack, though it brings them in line with the aspect ratio that competitors have been using for years.
From the original link - "When you first see a phone with a 4-inch or larger screen"...
Just to be clear those 4-inch or larger screen phones Dustin complained about all use a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio.
As one aside -- I noted during the Verge live coverage that they, time and time again, pointed out where Apple was introducing features that look like or operate like competitors. I have to imagine that has something to do with the Gruber/Arment tag team that tried to smear them for failing to always point out when people follow Apple.