The phablet, a portmanteau of the phone and tablet, is a class of mobile device designed to combine or straddle the functions of a smartphone and tablet. Pretty phabulous, right?
Large-screened devices are taking off rapidly in developing markets. Market research firm Jana released a report indicating that consumers in emerging markets favour smartphones with a screen that is at least four to five inches in size. In South Africa, this statistic is even higher; one third of the South African respondents desired their next smartphone to be 5.5 inches.
The factors that motivate the desire for bigger phones are simple. For many people in the emerging market, a smartphone is a cost-efficient, all-in-one entertainment option. Think about it… if you don’t have the disposable income to invest in a tablet or PC, then a larger smartphone is much more appealing. The overwhelming majority of Jana’s respondents claimed they used their smartphones for watching videos. But in addition to this, phone-owners can play games, surf the Web and view photographs in a much more user-friendly way than one could on smaller phones.
In the developed world, even Apple is playing along. The iPhone 6 launched in September 2014 revealed a much larger screen than its predecessors. The iPad Plus is even “bigger than bigger”, and solves many users’ need for a tablet AND a phone.
