Market Dodges Phablets -- Flurry

Telecom & Wireless

Published: April 1, 2013 1:52 pm

Last Updated: April 28, 2020 1:03 am

Apps analytics firm Flurry said today in a blog post that mobile devices known as “phablets” — that is, a device with a screen size larger than 5 inches but smaller than 8 inches — have made little headway in the mobile device market. The preferred devices, according to Flurry, are what it calls “medium-sized smartphones” with a screen size between 3.5 inches and 4.9 inches and full-size tablets of 8.5-inch or greater screen size.

The iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and the Galaxy smartphones from Samsung Electronics are examples of medium-size smartphones. The Apple iPad and the larger Kindle Fire from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) are examples of full-size tablets.

Flurry says that 69% of all mobile devices are medium-size smartphones, that these devices nab 72% of active users, and 76% of all app sessions. Full-size tablets account for 7% of all mobile devices, but get 13% of active users and 13% of app sessions. Phablets account for just 2% of devices, and 3% of users and sessions.

The research firm sums it up this way:

Phablets appear to make up an insignificant part of the device installed base, and do not show disproportionately high enough app usage to justify support.

In other words, develop time spent on phablets is money and time wasted. A far higher return is available for iPhones, Galaxy phones, and tablets.

The Flurry data is available here.

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