{"id":329,"date":"2013-01-13T23:12:57","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T23:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owltech.co.uk\/?p=329"},"modified":"2013-01-13T23:12:57","modified_gmt":"2013-01-13T23:12:57","slug":"phablets-are-the-new-normal-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/argon.owltech.co.uk\/?p=329","title":{"rendered":"Phablets Are The New Normal | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phablets Are The New Normal | TechCrunch<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Phablets Are The New\u00a0Normal<\/h1>\n
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\"\"NATASHA LOMAS<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n
posted 2 hours ago<\/div>\n
6<\/span>\u00a0Comments<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"huawei-mate1\"<\/div>\n
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As trends go, it\u2019s been hard to miss this one: Smartphones are getting bigger. Much bigger.\u00a0Samsung<\/a>\u00a0has been championing huge phones for well over a year, introducing its original 5.3-inch whopper \u2014 the Galaxy Note \u2014 in 2011, and firing out a 5.5-inch successor last year, going on to ship\u00a0more than 5 million Galaxy Note IIs<\/a>\u00a0in the first two months. More recently\u00a0CES<\/a>\u00a0was awash with whoppers \u2013 fromSony\u2019s 5-incher<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Huawei\u2019s 6.1-inch beast<\/a>\u00a0(incidentally, screen size inflation also struck in the tablet space: witness this\u00a020-incher<\/a>). Even Apple hasn\u2019t been able to stand firm against the ever-expanding waistlines of its rivals, adding half an inch to the\u00a0iPhone 5<\/a>\u2019s pane last year, pushing it up from 3.5 to 4 inches.<\/p>\n

But unlike many a flash-in-the-pan craze, the so-called phablet (phone-cum-tablet) phenomenon is, I would argue, here to stay \u2014 and I say this as a person with small hands who still uses a phone with a 3.5-inch screen because it\u2019s the perfect size to fit into my palm. But this no longer feels normal, or, increasingly, entirely functional. The thing is, phones are getting bigger for a reason: what we use them for is changing. This is technology evolution in action.<\/p>\n

Put simply, smartphones are turning into tablets. Being a slate to eye and interact with content is increasingly what phones are used for. Consider the meaning of the word tablet: a \u2018flat surface for an inscription\u2019. For inscription, read data, and the phablet phenomenon makes a lot more sense. Our fingers are at the helm of pocket computers, not pocket telephones \u2013 doing more and more digital stuff, be it\u00a0shopping<\/a>, social networking, browsing, gaming, messaging or streaming. (Meanwhile a quick glance at the PC market underlines that desktop dinosaurs\u00a0continue to decline<\/span>\u00a0as mobile computing ramps up.)<\/p>\n

The typical behaviour of a smartphone owner today involves a lot of eyeing and prodding at the screen, and a lot less holding the device blindly against an ear. But the swelling size of the smartphone is far more than an ergonomic consideration. Indeed, few people would argue larger phones with 5-plus- and even 6-plus-inch screens are generally easier to handle; they\u2019re not \u2013 typically requiring both hands to get involved for tasks like typing. But any added awkwardness is outweighed by the benefits of having more glass to play with, which in turn increases the usefulness of the device in several ways, including:<\/p>\n