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UrAvgConsumer/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
As we drift into the post, post-PC era, it’s odd that phones still have the power to excite.
We may not want to admit it, but when we see a new little oblong with a single button and a touchscreen, we can’t help but shriek like a teen espying Bieber.
So I am grateful that 9to5Mac discovered a fascinating video in which real New Yorkers are suddenly confronted with an iPhone 6.
This isn’t a real iPhone 6. Instead, it’s been cobbled together from the approximately 176,894 rumors that have wafted around the Internet since the iPhone 5S came out.
Still, such is the excitement around a new iPhone that many bright young things are only too prepared to shimmer with anticipation.
The joy of seeing real people react to a new phone lies in how little they talk about specs. This is always a shock to those of greater engineering bent, who somehow believe that real people think — or at least should think — like engineers.
They don’t.
Their first impressions are emotional and visceral. “Wow,” might not be lyrical, but it’s deeply spontaneous. Clearly, this mock-up managed to be realistic enough to elicit immediate reactions.
One of which was: “It looks like Samsung’s phone.”
Assuming that Apple will increase the iPhone 6’s screen size, the company’s hope will be not to get Samsung comparisons (and there was more than one in this video).
Despite court cases that might go on far into the next century, there are fewer design commonalities between Apple and Samsung than might be thought.
The essential impression given by a Galaxy is one of sturdy, plastic boldness. Apple is far more about style and subtlety.
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It’s likely that, one of these real people says, any increased size will be matched with a certain sleekness. Apple has never championed bulk.
Some of the so-called average consumers here don’t even want a bigger screen. Others, though, insist that they need to look at documents and videos, which a bigger screen makes easier.
When asked whether they’d buy this new iPhone, it’s interesting how many of the street people say they’re attached to their iPhone 5.
Apple has traded on such an emotional attachment for a long time. It makes it easier to get people to acquiesce to a closed ecosystem. It makes it easier to release fewer phones.
How radical a departure might the iPhone 6 be? Radical enough to merit a “wow,” I suspect.
