How Phablets Are Revolutionizing Mobile Devices and Surpassing Smartphones and Tablets

In every major city worldwide—and even in smaller towns—it's common to see countless people glued to their smartphone screens. The surge in mobile app usage fuels this trend, with approximately 48,000 app downloads happening every minute globally.

Compared to smartphones, tablets receive less daily attention. Tablets are often seen as luxury gadgets rather than essential devices. While perfect for watching movies in bed, smartphones remain the go-to for messaging and social interaction. However, as smartphone screens grow larger and phablets emerge—devices that blend the best features of smartphones and tablets—the question arises: will traditional tablets survive, or are they on the brink of extinction?

Market trends reveal that users increasingly favor phablets, which combine portability with expansive displays. Although smaller smartphones and tablets will remain available, their market share is shrinking. Tablets and compact smartphones are likely to evolve into niche tools—such as tablets serving as portable point-of-sale systems or digital menus in retail and hospitality sectors.

Apps are driving smartphone evolution, demanding larger screens for optimal user experience. Phablets, with their big yet portable displays, perfectly meet this need. It's clear their era is dawning, and future sales are expected to soar, leaving traditional smartphones and tablets behind.

Decline of Tablets

Tablets made their debut in 2010 with Apple's first iPad. A year later, the iPad 2 became the most popular tablet, still accounting for 27% of all iPads despite newer models like the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 entering the market.

Apple’s competitors, including Google Nexus and Samsung Galaxy Tab, also offer tablets that sell well but don't match the iPad's dominance.

Recently, discussions about the lack of innovation and the prolonged life cycle of tablets have intensified. Despite strong sales over the past four years, even Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has acknowledged the market stagnation. Both iPads and Android tablets have experienced declining sales since their peak in early 2013.

Although Apple releases new iPads annually and Android tablets appear even more frequently, the overall tablet market share began to decline in early 2013. By Q3 2014, when Apple introduced larger iPhones, tablets accounted for a record-low 17% of all mobile devices.

Smartphones Are Growing Bigger

As tablet usage decreases, smartphone screen sizes continue to expand. Even traditional smartphones now feature displays up to 5.5 inches, driven by Apple and Android manufacturers.

Since its 2010 launch, the Samsung Galaxy S screen has grown by 28%, while the iPhone screen size increased by 57% since 2011.

When phones were primarily for calls, screen size mattered less. Now, with the rise of apps, calls are among the least used features. Messaging, social media, web browsing, navigation, and gaming dominate smartphone use. As mobile apps rival desktop internet functions, manufacturers focus on enhancing user interaction through larger screens, new keyboard types, ergonomic designs, audiovisual compatibility, and varying touchscreen sensitivities.

Larger Screens Boost User Engagement

One major challenge with traditional smartphones was fitting extensive information onto small displays. Larger screens have increased app usage time by 34%, especially in categories like music, gaming, and photography. This demand for bigger displays has driven manufacturers to innovate accordingly.

What This Means for Consumers

Apps represent the future of mobile interaction, enabling users to perform complex tasks on their devices. They also influence website design and user experience on desktops. The dominance of apps has driven screen size increases and contributed to the decline in tablet market share. Consumers desire a single device for all purposes—can phablets fulfill this role?

Apple’s recent releases suggest users are ready for the phablet era. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus feature screens 17.5% and 37.5% larger than the iPhone 5s, respectively. The iPhone 6 doubled the sales of its predecessor in the same timeframe, with the iPhone 6 Plus showing even higher user engagement based on session length and app launches.

This trend is promising for app developers, who must now optimize interfaces for larger screens. Marketers also need to adapt strategies to encourage longer app usage and more frequent launches.

As apps grow more sophisticated and integral to daily life, large-screen phablets stand poised to dominate the mobile device landscape.

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