{"id":42948,"date":"2026-04-25T10:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/42948\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T10:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:24:09","slug":"how-tim-cook-made-bigger-iphones-a-hit-for-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/42948\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tim Cook Made Bigger iPhones a Hit for Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple’s outgoing CEO, Tim Cook, proved his predecessor, Steve Jobs, wrong: some people love a large iPhone.<\/p>\n

\n Loading audio narration…\n <\/p>\n

Jobs, the cofounder and driving force behind the iPhone, once knocked smartphones larger than 4 inches. “You can’t get your hand around it,” he said in a 2010 press conference<\/a>. “No one’s going to buy that.”<\/p>\n

When Cook took the reins in 2011, he began expanding the iPhone’s size. In 2012, the release of the iPhone 5 increased the phone’s screen size from 3.5 inches to 4 inches. Later base models reached up to 5.8 inches before landing at around 6.3 inches in the latest iteration, the iPhone 17.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Steve Jobs debuted the 3.5-inch iPhone 4 in 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cook also introduced larger-format iPhones, starting with the Plus series in 2014, which had a display size of 5.5 inches that year.<\/p>\n

Cook deftly leaned into larger models as the world turned to video streaming and on-the-go viewing. Netflix, for example, shifted its business around 2011 to focus more on streaming, and YouTube was growing rapidly around that time.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Apple introduced its largest iPhone model yet, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which topped out at 6.9 inches.<\/p>\n

The shift to larger sizes has been working out for Apple. Cook said in January that iPhone demand was “staggering” and “unprecedented” in the holiday quarter. Apple posted $85 billion in iPhone revenue for the period.<\/p>\n

Early data also showed that demand for the 17 Pro Max<\/a> was stronger in the first two weeks of availability than other models in the 17 lineup, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research.<\/p>\n

Apple’s larger-format phones are an example of how the tech giant prioritizes putting its own spin on technology rather than being first-to-market with an idea.<\/p>\n

“We could have done a larger iPhone years ago,” Cook told PBS News’ Charlie Rose<\/a> in 2014. “It’s never been about just making a larger phone. It’s been about making a better phone in every single way.”<\/p>\n

Thanks, Tim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple’s outgoing CEO, Tim Cook, proved his predecessor, Steve Jobs, wrong: some people love a large iPhone. Loading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[633,27513,27508,830,24152,27507,27512,27509,12268,27511,9322,1021,628,27510,512],"class_list":{"0":"post-42948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tim-cook","8":"tag-apple","9":"tag-availability","10":"tag-big-iphone","11":"tag-business-insider","12":"tag-example","13":"tag-inch","14":"tag-iphone-demand","15":"tag-large-iphone","16":"tag-phone","17":"tag-pro-max","18":"tag-size","19":"tag-steve-jobs","20":"tag-tim-cook","21":"tag-video-streaming","22":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116464861990246211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}