Wildly optimistic petition thinks it can convince companies to make Android flagship phones small again
You don’t have to read Android Police very long to pick up on the fact that many of us arequite vocal proponents of smaller smartphones. Market forces have utterly decimated your options when looking for a more petite Android handset, and the few phones we do get justdon’t tend to be very good. Frankly, it’s nearly enough to drive someone over tothe iPhone side of the fence, where small phones still get some respect. Now one man has made it his mission to convince Android manufacturers to give this maligned form factor another shot.
Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky haslaunched somewhat of an informal petitionin the aim of getting the attention of someone that makes Android smartphones and showing them just how many potential customers might be interested in a more reasonably sized handset than the 6-inch-plus monstrosities currently dominating carrier shelves.
Even if that’s a noble idea, Migicovsky’s effort has more than a few obstacles in its way.Critics have been quick to point outthat it’s not like these companies are clueless and haven’t done their own market research — clearly their findings just don’t support the investment in selling smaller phones. There’s also the not insubstantial problem of sourcing components, and especially for things like the display, it’s going to be tricky to find the right ready-to-use panel (and enormously more challenging and expensive to do anything custom).
Speaking to The Verge, Migicovsky seems to think that even if this petition can’t grab an OEM’s interest itself, perhaps it could lead to a crowdfunded effort that would put its money where its mouth is — though how that might resolve all these component and manufacturing concerns, we’re still not sure. While this effort might not bring us the phone we’ve been craving, it’s still one we’re happy to see — somebody’s got to keep the small smartphone dream alive.
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