He said "many", not "all", and "4-inch+", not "4-inch".
Most of the high-end Android phones on the market are larger than 4 inches (in many cases, significantly so), and he says the iPhone 5 - at 4.0 - is barely acceptable.
The problem people had with the original article was the smugness with which he made the argument. Here's the worst part (from the 3.5 article):
> This is an example of one of those design decisions that you don't usually notice until you see someone doing it wrong. It's one of the things that makes Apple products Apple products.
It's one thing to lay out an argument for a design, it's another to claim that anyone arriving at another conclusion (as Apple eventually did), is "doing it wrong".
He said "many", not "all", and "4-inch+", not "4-inch".
Most of the high-end Android phones on the market are larger than 4 inches (in many cases, significantly so), and he says the iPhone 5 - at 4.0 - is barely acceptable.