Design exploration what a future iPhone 6 might look like.
Peter Zigich
iPhone 5 is still the best looking phone today.
Competition is not standing still. Some nice "premium" phones are coming out from other companies.
It makes me wonder what will Apple do to stay on top, and beat out the competition.
This is how I imagine next iPhone 6
3 key areas next iPhone has to address:
- improve its already spectacular design of iPhone 5
- compete with cheap smartphones
- compete with large screen smartphones (phablets).
Home Button
It has been there since the first iPhone.The physical Home Button is one of the best design features of the iPhone, but it takes up a lot of space at the front.
How about moving Home button to the side?
We could end up with bigger screen or a smaller phone.
With Home button on the side there's room to add another row of icons, while physical dimensions remain the same as iPhone 5.
Feature two Home Buttons, one on each side, instead of one.
More possible functions combining left & right Home buttons with single, double, triple click. (Example: double click left Home button then single click right Home button; or press left & right at the same time, etc).
H x W x D - 124mm x 59mm x 7.6mm
Is one iPhone enough?
Apple has 4 iPods (Touch, Nano, Classic & Shuffle), and 2 iPads (iPad & iPad mini).
Why Not 3 different iPhones?
Size comparison from left to right
iPhone 5, iPhone 6 Mini, iPhone 6, & iPhone 6 XL
iPhone 6 Mini
Cheaper, smaller iPhone to compete with cheap Android phones, aimed at developing and prepaid markets.
Same premium materials as "flagship" iPhone, but with a smaller screen.
Screen is the same size as iPhone 4.
I estimate it would cost $350 - $450 without a contract ($0 - $100 with two year contract).
More expensive than some hope for, but the same happened with iPad mini.
H x W x D - 96.5mm x 59mm x 7.6mm
iPhone XL - Large screen iPhone
There is a significant demand for a larger screen iPhone.
Bigger Screen would allow for 1 extra row & 1 extra column of icons.
Same premium materials as "flagship" iPhone, but a larger screen.
Perfect for one handed use unlike ridiculously oversized Samsung Galaxy Note.
I estimate it would cost $750 - $900 without a contract ($300 - $400 with two year contract).
H x W x D - 137mm x 70mm x 7.6mm
iPhone 6 Mini, iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 XL
Side view, size comparison,
iPhone 6 Mini, iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 XL
3 very different iPhones
Multiple screen size options for different segments of the market.
More choices for customers.
What about iOS?
There are some things about iOS that drive me crazy. Finding Apps on the phone is getting more complicated.
The average iPhone user has 100 - 150 Apps on their device.
Users are just overwhelmed with the amount of Apps installed and they end up hidden away and forgotten.
It's necessary to rethink core UI — from a user experience perspective.
iOS has not fundamentally changed since it was introduced in 2007, and its starting to show its age.
I came up with a cool concept of how to find, organize, search and choose App in easy and intuitive way. In a few easy clicks users can, narrow the search for the right app on ther phone (even if you have 1000 applications installed). I call this process "Distill" - purify, extract essential elements.
This is still work in progress. I will post more info on it in the near future.
Size comparison
iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Mini & iPhone 6 XL
Let me know what you think.
Next project: One thing Apple TV is missing to become more than a hobby.
Peter Zigich
You can follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/PeterZ3
