Android Makers Abandon One-Handed Market to Apple

T-Mobile today announced its sale date for the new Sony Xperia Z3 phone, following up on last week's announcement of Verizon's Xperia Z3v (above). But the smaller Z3 Compact is nowhere to be found, leaving the iPhone 6 the only one-handed, premium smartphone in America. There is no late-2014 replacement for my 2013 Moto X, made by anyone other than Apple.

What the hell happened?

Android phone makers can make excellent, smaller smartphones. They just don't. And by "smaller" I mean "you can hold a bag of groceries with one hand, while using the other hand to text and ask which groceries you forgot."

If you've been reading my columns for a while, you know this is one of my pet peeves. A while ago, I thought screen size was the problem, but a narrow bezel can fix that issue. The 2013 Moto X, iPhone 6, and Sharp Aquos Crystal are all narrower than the old Samsung Galaxy Nexus while packing larger screens, for instance. But once you get wider than about 2.8 inches, many people have real trouble with one-handed use.

Asking why there are no smaller premium smartphones is not the same as disparaging larger devices. There can be multiple uses for mobile gadgets: we can have the train commuter who holds on to a pole while playing 2048, and the "mini-tablet" user who wants a big window for productivity and Web browsing. I'd like to think we can have both; but, of course, we can't.

I keep asking phone makers about this over and over and over again. I asked Samsung when I saw the disappointing Galaxy Alpha, for instance. I asked Motorola when the Moto X bloated from a perfect 2.57 inches wide to its current just-a-little-too-wide 2.85 inches, and I asked LG when the G2 became the G3. I've asked HTC, whose 5-inch One (M8) is now the smallest great Android smartphone. Of course, they all blame us. Here's why the assembled brain trust can't seem to sell a premium smartphone that won't hurt many peoples' thumbs.

1. Bigger Is Better
The NO. 1 reason cited to me is that American consumers buy objects, essentially, by the square inch. Bigger is better. It is actually impossible for the American mind to conceive of a smaller product that is more valuable than a larger product. There are apparently studies on this. That said, I believe it, and I've seen this philosophy play out in other markets, like art sales. This means not only that smaller phones can't be made with all the same premium parts as larger phones, but that every time a competitor makes a bigger phone, everybody else has to inflate to compete.

2. Market Confusion
So you can't survive as a phone maker without a giant smartphone. Why not offer options – say, a Z3 and a Z3 Compact?

Apparently, phone salespeople are just as dumb as consumers. Presented with multiple options from the same manufacturer at the same price, they have no idea how to sell them. That's called "market confusion." Every product planner wants a smooth transition from low-end to high-end – no tie scores mixing up the ranks. Carriers just won't buy a phone like the Z3 Compact that confuses the game.

3. Batteries, Packed
We genuinely want our smartphones to last longer. That means bigger batteries. But smartphone makers are obsessed with thinness; thinness is one of those specs on which you can really market your phone. It's simple geometry. How do you deliver a bigger battery in a thinner phone? More surface area, of course.

So What About Apple?
I would believe all of this except that Apple has sold enough smaller smartphones, and made enough money with them, to wallpaper Maryland in $100 bills. Maybe even a larger state. I haven't done the math. Maybe Ohio.

Yes, Apple's phones are getting larger. And yes, even Apple follows the "bigger = more expensive" program. But I've been heartened to see the backlash against the iPhone 6 Plus, in terms of people who bought what they thought was the "high-end iPhone" and found it too large to use in one hand. (The iPhone 6 Plus has its place as a mini-tablet.)

The iPhone world seems to operate on completely different rules to the Android world, though. Apple controls its own retail channel and its own advertising, and through its massive market power, it doesn't need to bow down to carrier buyers.

I'm hoping that the Z3 Compact will at least come to the U.S. unlocked, although unlocked phones not supported by carriers tend to sell about 25 units each here in the States. Otherwise? I love Android, but this iPhone 6 I've been using is feeling better and better.