Why I Don't Give A Hoot About Giant Phone Screens

As Samsung releases a steady stream of larger and larger phones, and Samsung ads are proving brutally effective, and Business Insider's own editor-in-chief can't stop tweeting about the unstoppability of giant phones, I feel compelled to defend my iPhone.

After all, Apple itself stays pretty quiet in this debate.

(Although Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on it in a recent earnings call: "We put a lot of thought into screen sizes and we think we picked the right one."]

Samsung's giant phablets and phones remind me of sports utility vehicles.

When SUVs first came out, they seemed unstoppable. They kept getting bigger and bigger, as advertisements for these vehicles and owners of these vehicles mocked people who drove smaller cars, and for awhile the SUVs dominated the market. But at a certain point consumers started realizing that the benefits of a giant SUV — e.g. being able to drive through streams — were irrelevant to most consumers. Meanwhile those smaller cars had some pretty cool perks, like fuel efficiency and style.

So what's the point of a giant screen? It's better for watching movies and playing games. Some people consider it better for typing. And that's it.

Now let me explain why Apple products appeal to me as a consumer.

My iPhone 4S is an undeniably beautiful device. The operating system works like a charm. It provides me with a set of basic apps that enhance my interaction with the world (these include Mail, Safari, iTunes, ESPN, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Facebook, Dictionary.com, Notepad, Google Maps, and a few more). I like how easily it fits in my pocket and hand.

As for the reported flexibility of the Android operating system, I personally don't give a hoot about advanced customization.

As for watching movies and playing immersive games on my phone, I simply don't have time for these things during the course of my day. I don't want to watch 5 minutes of a movie on the subway. When I do watch a movie, I would rather do so on the large screen of an iPad or the larger screen of a TV (with Apple TV hookup) or the larger screen at the movie theater.

So no, I don't envy Samsung's giant screen. In fact, I'm excited to see that Apple, with the iWatch, and Google, with Glass, are moving toward even smaller screens.

The end goal of Apple — as hinted by CEO Tim Cook's comment that "we are not a hardware company" — goes beyond the phone in your hand and toward a vision of a seamless digital world.