Efforts to group the growing range of hybrid devices is a pure fantasy.
Do you struggle to make text big enough to read on your smartphone screen? Fear not: the solution could be a “phablet”, according to analysts trying to create a single grouping for the growing range of hybrid devices sized between a phone and a tablet. Phablet is a poor choice word. As for being a new category, it is pure fantasy.
The popularity of different hybrid devices is certain to grow but there is little justice in using one term to describe everything from a smartphone with a 5 inch screen to a WiFi-only 7 inch tablet. Barclays estimates that the market for all such phablets will grow two-thirds annually to more than 402 m devices in 2015. For comparison, 170 m smartphones were sold in the third quarter of last year, according to research consultancy Gartner. But within this category, the most interesting group is smartphones with screen sizes bigger than 5 inch.
Creating a new category would be fitting enough for 2013 that marks the 3rd anniversary of the iPad and the 6th for the iPhone. Sales of 5+ inches smartphones could double each year for the next three to just over half of this phablet world, to account for three-quarters of the $135bn market by value. Phone manufacturing companies would welcome the opportunity if devices of several sizes allowed the likes of HTC and LG to plump up margins by charging the sort of premiums achieved on smartphones by Apple and Samsung.
But success depends on what end users want. Not everyone is happy using both hands to use a phone – nor to hold a plate-sized device to the ear. Not all developers will be happy working on applications for such a range of devices. The only sure bet is that technology will keep evolving. Barclays estimates that shaving 1mm off the thickness of a 5 inch screen would improve a device’s battery life by half. Improvements like that would form a real phenomenon, and much faster than phoney phrases such as phablet.
Creating a new category would be fitting enough for 2013 that marks the 3rd anniversary of the iPad and the 6th for the iPhone. Sales of 5+ inches smartphones could double each year for the next three to just over half of this phablet world, to account for three-quarters of the $135bn market by value. Phone manufacturing companies would welcome the opportunity if devices of several sizes allowed the likes of HTC and LG to plump up margins by charging the sort of premiums achieved on smartphones by Apple and Samsung.
But success depends on what end users want. Not everyone is happy using both hands to use a phone – nor to hold a plate-sized device to the ear. Not all developers will be happy working on applications for such a range of devices. The only sure bet is that technology will keep evolving. Barclays estimates that shaving 1mm off the thickness of a 5 inch screen would improve a device’s battery life by half. Improvements like that would form a real phenomenon, and much faster than phoney phrases such as phablet.
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