A recent International Data Corp. survey found that phablet sales are on the rise and becoming a threat to tablet sales.
Opera Mediaworks followed with a study that showed 54% of phablet owners use
the device for social networking, which is much higher than the global average
for all mobile gadgets.
The phablet is a hybrid device combining smartphone
features with a larger screen, ranging from 5 in. to 7 in. The Opera research
studied traffic running through its mobile ad platform in March and April to see
what sites and apps were being used.
Social networking on smartphones ran a
distant second in the study, at less than 30%, with tablet usage coming in
around 10%. On the other hand, tablets continue to be the device of choice when
it comes to playing games or watching videos.
“What we discovered is people now want to
use their [phablets] for both purposes: to run around town, use the map, check
email, text a friend that you’re running late,” Scott Swanson, president of
Opera Mediaworks said in an article for Re/code. “Then they were also using it at home, sometimes instead of a
tablet, for checking social media.”