Phablets currently account for more than 20 per cent of the device market, a new piece of research has found.
According to a research conducted by Yahoo owned analytics and monetization firm Flurry, adoption of large screened smartphones, commonly referred to as phablets, has surged from 6 percent a year ago to 20 percent now. Phablets are categorized as phones with screens between 5 and 6.9 inches, like the Galaxy Note or the IPhone 6 Plus.
It was found that in January 2014 only six percent of the users were on phablets as opposed to 68 percent using phones that had a screen size between 3.5 inches and 4.9 inches. However, by March 2015, the phablet usage went up by 20 percent while medium phones usage dropped to 59 percent. Full-size tablets also saw their market share fall from 15 percent to 12 percent.
The Yahoo-owned company focused on the top 875 devices which accounted for 87 percent of sessions in March 2015.
The research found that Android devices dominate the phablet space. Around 36 percent of active Android devices in March 2015 were phablets, compared to 4 percent of iOS devices.
The largest adoption of phablets was seen in Asian markets, with Taiwan and Hong Kong seeing 50 percent of active device users on phablets.
“It seems consumers worldwide are smitten with the combination of a large screen size and good old fashioned cellular telephony,” said Jarah Euston, VP, Analytics and Marketing at Flurry.
“Indeed, in some early adopter markets like Taiwan and Hong Kong, the share of active users on phablets is 50 percent. Six months after the iPhone 6 Plus launch, phablets are now the second most used form factor, after medium phones (such as the iPhone 6).”
