Welcome, phablets! You’re the next contestant on “Oh, God, We Need To Find A Holy Grail of Non-Apple Technology”!
“Phablets, like the Samsung Galaxy Note, Will Surpass 208 Million Device Shipments Annually in 2015” (tip o’ the antlers to Daring Fireball)
Despite the slow start for phablet smartphones in 2011, the market is at the dawn of the phablet era.
Much like the Mesozoic era, the Phablet era will apparently feature great lumbering beasts that will eventually die out.
Phablets are defined as having a touch screen size between 4.6 to 5.5 inches. Global shipments for phablets will increase by a factor of 10 in 2012 from 2011.
Well, considering Samsung only started selling the Galaxy Note in November, how hard is that going to be? Samsung has had a modest success selling the Galaxy Note, having sold 5 million from November to the end of March, but the Macalope remains dubious about there being a larger market for these misfit devices.
The horny one has said this before but it bears repeating: The only reason Android OEMs are pushing these circus freaks is because they’ve realized they can’t sell tablets. Why can’t they sell tablets? Because the carriers are their storefront and the carriers are only interested in selling phones to get you into a contract. They couldn’t really care less if you bought a tablet from them. And if you can’t sell tablets the only thing left to do is upsize the phone.
But how many people really want to carry around a phone the size of the Necronomicon? So far almost exactly 5 million. Is that “a hit”? Certainly not compared to the iPhone, which sold 35 million units last quarter.
There’s an easy mistake to be made here. Seeing someone quickly fill a product niche doesn’t mean that that sales curve is going to continue in perpetuity. Just look at netbooks.
The Macalope means that figuratively. No one should have to look at netbooks. They’re butt ugly.
But it wasn’t that long ago we were being told that netbooks were the wave of the future! Now it’s (barf) “phablets.”
By the way, who makes up these names? Because, dude.
[Editors’ Note: In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.]