In documents the public was never meant to see, Apple lays out exactly what's holding the iPhone back: small screens and high prices.
These internal documents were revealed during the most recent Apple-Samsung trial, which began a week ago. Apple is suing Samsung, alleging that Samsung copied the iPhone and violated five of Apple's patents.
The documents, disclosed during the trial, seem to show that Apple is considering making a larger smartphone in the style of Samsung's phones. The slides below were shown at an internal Apple meeting in April 2013.
The slideshow begins by noting that iPhone sales are quickly decelerating:
Why? "Strongest demand coming from less expensive & larger screen smartphones," the next slide reads. Making cheaper and bigger smartphones is what Samsung excels at.
But it's the following slide that has the money quote: "Consumers want what we don't have." Ouch.
Specifically, consumers seem to want smartphones with bigger screens and smaller price tags. Apple has started going in the direction of cheaper iPhones with the iPhone 5C, and leaked design sketches seem to show that the next iPhone will have a significantly larger screen.
Larger-screened iPhones were something that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was famously and adamantly against. In 2010, Jobs insulted a rivals' phones, saying that "you can't get your hand around it" and that "no one's going to buy" a phone that large.
