this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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Why can't we go back to small phones? (www.spacebar.news)
submitted 1 day ago by corbin@infosec.pub to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] Vespair@lemm.ee 7 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Bigger screens mean bigger and more obtrusive ads.

I'm convinced this is 90% of the reason right here.

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

I don't think phone makers are that close to ad companies.

It's most likely the same thing as a truck- people say they don't want this insecurity driven monstrosity, but test after test, people buy the bigger one.

Edit: I mis-wrote that, my implication was that the people deciding the phone size spec are going to be doing it off hard data like what customers like to buy and what extra hardware they can fit in. I know Google owns Pixel, but the data point surrounding more ad impressions is extremely weak compared to literally any other data point regarding consumer choices

[–] Obelix@feddit.org 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I don’t think phone makers are that close to ad companies

Google?

[–] needanke@feddit.org 2 points 2 hours ago

Ironically they still have a small phone

[–] Vespair@lemm.ee 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I have a Pixel. It is literally made by one of the largest advertising companies in the world.

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago

Google is not interested in a larger screen size so that more ads that otherwise wouldn't have been scrolled to can count as an impression. Given 95% of apps are scroll based anyways, you would get what - a couple percent more impressions on ads the user wouldn't have scrolled past before closing their phone?

No, this is not the main reason, especially when you consider every major phone brand on the market is going this way.

It's obviously a case of "consumers see big and click buy" (see: cars) and "big phone means more battery life and better specs we can market".