Since last Tuesday, Apple users around the world have desired only one thing: The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, using respectively 4.7” and 5.5” screens.

Gone are the days of smaller handsets that can be used one-handed. Everyone has jumped on the bandwagon of bigger is better.

In fact, a surprising survey on iMore shows that users are 50–50 split on the iPhone 6 vs. iPhone 6 Plus.

Two years ago, Apple :

Anyone can make a larger smartphone display. But if you go large for large’s sake, you end up with a phone that feels oversize, awkward, and hard to use. iPhone 5 features a 4-inch display designed the right way: it’s bigger, but it’s the same width as iPhone 4S. So everything you’ve always done with one hand — typing on the keyboard, for instance — you can still do with one hand. On a larger canvas that lets you see more of every web page. More of your inbox. More events on your calendar. Even more apps on your Home screen.

What has changed between now and then? Doesn’t the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus feel oversize, awkward and hard to use?

Yes, if you look at the iPhone with 2012 eyes. What happened in the past two years is that:

• Users’ requirements have changed
• iOS has changed
• Display technologies have improved.

Users’ requirements

People do so much more than calling when working on an iPhone. This device should actually be renamed to something else because the phone features are now just one of the many apps a user installs on his iPhone.

By delivering a larger iPhone, Apple has humbly recognized that their initial beliefs regarding screen size, are no longer valid. Intelligence and business acumen mean being able to steer path when conditions change, and this is exactly what Apple has done.

A bigger iPhone means easier reading, writing, editing, drawing, copying and pasting. All tasks that we do increasingly more often on our phones.

After seeing the new iPhones, there’s no doubt that users will benefit from the bigger screen.

iOS 8

iOS 7 and even more iOS 8 were designed to allow for easier one hand operations. Features like:

• Swipe back and forward
• Reachability
• like in Messages

help you with a bigger iPhone.

Display technologies

This morning iMore wrote:

Likewise, Apple has stuck to the display technology they prefer, not willing to compromise with SAMOLED or PenTile subpixels just to stretch out their screens. Apple waited until they could get a Retina HD display, with photo alignment of the liquid crystals for higher contrast, dual-domain pixels for full sRGB color accuracy at wider viewing angles, a better polarizer, and an even thinner assembly. Instead of just an iPhone with a bigger screen, they waited until they could make an iPhone 6 Plus.

The other night during the interview with Charlie Rose, Tim Cook said something along the lines (I’m loosely quoting) “we could have shipped a larger iPhone a long time ago”. Which is true. Apple held onto the old screen size until the display quality for larger screens matched the one already used on the iPhone 4, 4s, 5 and 5s.

While I always envied the larger displays of certain Samsungs, or HTCs, I never really liked the way they displayed colours. The iPhone 6 have both a larger screen and beautiful colours.

Conclusions

The success of the is only the beginning of a series of record sales for Apple. Whoever bought Android only for the larger screen, now has an alternative.

For the rest of us, Apple users, it’s just a matter of printing some cutouts to test whether the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus fit in our jackets and click order.