iPhone XS: Apple criticised for making new device too big for women's hands

The biggest news in the world of technology this week as the unveiling of the brand new iPhone.

In what must have felt like Christmas Day for Apple devotees, the lavish iPhone XS was presented completely with several snazzy new features.

These include a more advanced camera, liquid displays and a 5.8in to 6.5in screen, which is a considerable growth on the old SE model, which has since been removed from the Apple website.

However, this upgrade in size has seen Apple criticised by feminist activists who claim that the new model is too big for women, as women's hands on average are an inch smaller than men's hands.

Speaking to The Telegraph, campaigner Caroline Criado Perez explained how she got a repetitive strain injury from using an iPhone 6, which soon went away after she switched to an iPhone SE.

I genuinely have RSI [repetitive strain injury] from having an iPhone 6, and it went as soon as I switched to an iPhone SE.

It genuinely does affect women’s hand health – women do buy more iPhones than men – it just baffles me that Apple doesn’t design with our bodies in mind.

We should be furious about this, we are paying just as much money for it as men for a product that doesn’t work as well for us.

I have to make a choice between making an upgrade to the only phone that fits my hand before they discontinue it - soon there will be no iPhone that fits the average woman’s hand size - even though the technology is two years out of date.

Or get a new one and deal with the fact that it'll give me RSI. That's not an acceptable choice in the 21 century,  you need to have a smartphone.

In follow up tweets, Perez also added that women buy more smartphones than men do, but Apple continue to fail to release products that are designed for them.

The Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, Jess Phillips, also lent her voice to the debate claiming that most technology companies still only design their products to cater to men rather than everyone.

In so much design and technology development, the default standard is always that which suits a man.

Companies have got to get better at recognising that their idea of normal should account for all their customers.

Sophie Walker, the Women's Equality Party Leader, joined in the debate on Twitter and accused Apple of being obsessed with size.

Writer, academic and Techno-sociologist, Zeynep Tufekci also criticised Apple on Twitter, claiming that she also struggles to hold the bigger iPhone models.

Sam Smethers, the chief executive of the Fawcett Society also told The Telegraph:

Whether it be services, products or the world of work, if we started in a different place with things designed by women for women we would improve women's lives & we would all benefit.

indy100 has contacted Apple for comment.

HT UniLad

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