Flurry Research Shows That Phablets Were The Most-Snapped-Up Devices In December 2015

Did you notice your officemate’s new Samsung Galaxy Note 5, yesterday? Apparently, your officemate could be part of the statistics that analytics firm Flurry gathered over the holidays. According to Flurry’s report, the majority of Androids bought in the Christmas craze were phablets. Meaning, phones with screens larger than 5.5 inches.

This isn’t exactly surprising news, as most of the flagship devices released in 2015 had display sizes 5 inches and up. The trend and demand for bigger-screen devices was such that Apple followed suit by finally producing the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus.

In the past year, we’ve seen the rollout of phablet-sized flagship devices, across the brands:

-Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus

-Samsung Galaxy Note 5

-Motorola Moto X Pure/Style

-LG G4

-Huawei Nexus 6P

-ASUS ZenFone 2

-Sony Xperia Z5

-OnePlus 2

According to a 9to5Google.com article, only the Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9 have screens smaller than the 5.5-inch form factors. The trends tend to be cyclical in a sense, though: While the mobile device companies may create the design, the consumer response of buying more of the phablet-sized device is the source of the demand, which feeds the companies’ drive to produce more of this specific form factor. Thus, it’s safe to say that for the moment, the phablet trend may continue within the next couple of years.

In spite of the fact that 19.8% of devices bought and activated between December 19 to 25 were Samsung phablets, Apple still trumped Android as a whole, as Apple got 49.1% of the device activations in that window. Given the large-screen trend, most likely, it was the iPhone “Plus” versions that got the lion’s share of the holiday purchases.

Expect more mobile devices to be built in the same vein as the 2015 phablet trend in the next few years. Unless someone manages to spark another “small is powerful” movement, it seems like the device motto for the moment is “bigger is better.”

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Read about the Flurry research here: https://flurrymobile.tumblr.com/post/136133865650/pha-la-la-a-real-phabulous-holiday

Read more about the phablet trend from 9to5Google.com: https://9to5google.com/2015/12/29/phablets-most-popular-android/