Phablets Surge in Holiday Activations

Phablets were the technology gadget of choice for many holiday gift-givers. Flurry, a firm that provides mobile advertising solutions for marketers and monetization solutions for app publishers, reported that the large-screen smartphones made up 27% of all device activations during the week leading in to Christmas, up from a 4% share of the market in 2013.

Nearly 50% of all device activations during Christmas week were of Apple products, with its phablet—the iPhone 6s Plus—accounting for 12% of the total. Samsung’s share of device activations was 19.8%, while Nokia finished with a 2% share.

The Apple activation share was actually down 2.2% from 2014. Flurry added that more than half of all Android activations were completed on phablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note or those devices popular in Asian markets. Samsung’s activation share rose 2.1% in 2015.

“This year, the larger trend Flurry uncovered was what it dubbed the ‘death of small phones,’” wrote Sarah Perez for TechCrunch. “That is, for the first time in 2015, consumers appear to be opting for phablets over smaller-screened phones. And phones with a screen smaller than 3.5 inches (e.g. most Blackberry devices) are practically extinct.”

Social Networking Tops Phablet Usage

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.”

Tablet Shipments are Slowing

The sales of tablet computers may be leveling off, with shipments dropping 35.7% when the first quarter of 2014 is compared with the 2013 holiday season, according to International Data Corp. (IDC)

Apple has shipped 16.4 million iPads since the first of the year, but that’s a drop of more than three million over the first quarter of 2013, while Samsung increased its first-quarter shipments to 11.2 million.

At the same time, phablet sales are on the rise, which the IDC report suggests is a direct threat to tablet sales. Phablets combine the smartphone and tablet into one device, using a display screen of 6 in. or larger. The three Galaxy Note phablets from Samsung have sold well, with devices from HTC, LG, Nokia, and Sony also becoming big sellers.

IDC also said replacement cycles for tablets have become an issue. Manufacturers usually implement modest upgrades to the devices, making it easier for consumers to hang on to older models for longer periods of time.

“The rise of large-screen phones and consumers who are holding on to their existing tablets for ever-longer periods of time were both contributing factors to a weaker-than-anticipated quarter for tablets,” said Tom Mainelli, program vice president for devices and displays at IDC. “In addition, commercial growth has not been robust enough to offset the slowing of consumer shipments.”