Phablets Will Account For Half Of Smartphone Shipments By 2016

Phablets are taking over.

Already this year, BI Intelligence finds that phablets - defined as a smartphone with a screen between 5 inches and 7 inches - will account for over one-third of global smartphone shipments. By 2019, that share will rise to 59%.

The transition to larger screen smartphones has big implications for the mobile market as a whole.

BI Intelligence's research finds that phablet sales are cannibalizing tablet sales. Over the next five years to 2019, we forecast the tablet market will grow at an average compound annual rate of just 8%, and reach 435 million shipments in 2019.

Consumer interest in larger screen phones is also nudging giants like Apple to come out with new products - with a 5.5 inch iPhone expected later this year. In addition, phablets are giving even more momentum to the "visual web." Larger-screen real estate encourages sustained on-the-go engagement on content-centric social networks and apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and LINE. More than half of activity on phablets is tied to social networks.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we survey these trends toward larger screens and explain why the phablet market will grow to dominate smartphone sales and diminish demand for tablets.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts total full-year shipments for the phablet market between 2014 and 2019.
• Discusses the increasing popularity of the phablet and its effect on the larger global smartphone market.
• Revises our previous tablet market forecast down to reflect the phablet's cannibalization of tablet demand.
• Outlines phablet users' social media-centric behavior patterns and correlates it with the rise of visually oriented social networks and messaging apps.

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