Video Consumption, Gaming Driving Phablet Growth at the Expense of Tablets, Analyst Says

More than 400 million phablets will ship in 2019, up from 138 million forecast for this year, a Juniper Research report said. While the early success of the iPhone 6 has driven the category since its fall debut, budget phablets with 5.5- to 6.9-inch screens are expected to push the category into the mainstream market, the researcher said in a Wednesday news release. With smartphone screen sizes trending larger, many flagship smartphones are likely to be phablets by default within two to three years as consumers increasingly use smartphones for media consumption and gaming that benefit from the larger screens, Juniper said. The trend will have an impact on smaller-screen tablets that are closer to phablets in size and could affect sales of larger tablets, too, if consumers shun the larger, more expensive models, it said. The trend is likely to slow tablet adoption in markets where consumers already do most computing on smartphones, such as China, Juniper said. Stakeholders are likely to feel less of an impact from a shift away from tablets as the same chips are now powering the gamut of mobile devices ranging from smartphones to laptops, analyst James Moar said. "Hardware capabilities are blurring,” Moar said, adding that cellular-connected tablets, phablets and smartphones are all now including console-level graphics and sound systems. “This shifts device design parameters to budgets and use cases, rather than technological features." Among the report’s findings: Chinese vendors hoping to expand tablet and phablet offerings globally are likely to see slower growth due to “low-key marketing strategies” and online-only distribution. Juniper forecasts growing use of phablets at work, spurred by vendors offering productivity software standard with some devices.