The smartphone market will be flooded by phablets (5.5″ – 6.9″ phones) in the future, says Juniper Research. The firm has predicted that more than 400 million such devices will be shipped in 2019: almost a 190% increase.
Juniper believes that, while the iPhone 6 pushed phablets into the mainstream consciousness, budget devices will drive the market. Additionally, many flagship handsets are likely to be phablets within two-to-three years, considering the steady rise in smartphone screen sizes, which are increasingly used for media consumption and gaming.
Consumers with phablets are less likely to buy small tablets and may be dissuaded from purchasing a larger model because of the price. This trend is expected to slow tablet adoption in markets where the majority of computing is already performed on smartphones, such as China.
Juniper has also found that components are increasingly shared between mobile devices. “Hardware capabilities are blurring, with devices like cellular-connected tablets, phablets and smartphones with console-level graphics and sound systems becoming much more common”, said report author James Moar. “This shifts device design parameters to budgets and use cases, rather than technological features”.
The whitepaper, ‘One Screen to Rule Them All’, is available to download from http://tinyurl.com/odjk8ke.
