Apple CEO Tim Cook was interviewed on a few different topics at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. In particular he had a lot to say to dismiss ever using OLED display technology in a future iPhone, and was rather reserved about the possibility of an iPhone with a larger screen. Rumors have been flying about both, but mainly the latter, opening the doors for what might be a 5-inch iPhone to compete with larger Android smartphones.
Addressing OLED displays, Cook was more than pessimistic about the idea. “If you ever buy anything online and really want to know what he color is, as many people do, you should really think twice before you depend on the color from an OLED display,” he said after stating that OLED displays have “awful” color saturation.
When asked about the iPhone’s screen size, he seemed pretty confident at first about the current 4-inch offering: “We put a lot of thinking into screen size and believe me, we’ve picked the right one.” He stopped short there, throwing in “I don’t want to say what we will do or won’t do.” That last statement makes the conversation interesting since it’s not an outright denial.
Lastly, Cook took a bit of his interview time to nitpick at competitors’ approach to marketing. “Let me compare to the PC industry. Over the years, the way companies competed were two things: specs and price. People wanted to say, I’ve got the largest drive and fastest processor. In the camera business, people began to talk about megapixels.” He then added, “Do you know the speed of an AX Processor? You probably don’t. Does it matter? You want a fantastic experience.”
It looks like we can safely rule out OLED displays in iPhones, at least for now, but the iPhone Plus (or iPhone Math or whatever the hell you want to call a 5-inch iPhone) is still very much on the table.