Phablets will become the most popular smartphone type by 2019

Smartphone market by screensize

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Phablets — smartphones with a screen size between 5.5 and 7 inches — are on track to lead the global smartphone market in terms of shipments by 2019, according to a forecast by IDC.

Phablets accounted for 40% of all smartphones shipped in 2017, and that share's expected to reach 59% by 2021.

While sales of phablets will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% to reach 1 billion units in 2021, up from 611 million in 2017, regular-sized smartphones will decline 7.4% over the same period.

The shift toward phablets as the dominant smartphone form factor is significant because smartphones with larger screens tend to drive more mobile usage:

Phablet owners open more apps. Phablet owners launch 21% more apps than owners of 4-inch smartphones. As mobile user behavior increasingly shifts toward visual-heavy activities such as online video and gaming, the growing popularity of phablets could offer businesses more opportunities to reach consumers.
Phablet owners use apps longer. Phablets also have a 3.5% higher average session length than 4-inch devices. This is likely a result of an improved mobile experience derived from the device's larger screen size, which makes everything from navigating menus to playing games more enjoyable.

This shift is happening more rapidly in the Android smartphone market, which offered a range of phablet-sized smartphones roughly three years before Apple did.

Android has a robust lineup of phablet devices. Android wasn't only the first to offer phablets, but it also currently offers a greater range of devices with larger-sized screens. By 2021, phablets are expected to represent 91% of Android shipments, up from 75% in 2016. Samsung was the first to enter the phablet market with the Galaxy Note in 2011.
Although Apple was late to the phablet game, its recent launches are helping to drive phablet adoption in the iOS ecosystem. Apple’s phablet lineup is limited compared with Android's and tends to be pricey. But phablets are becoming more popular for Apple; its larger-screen iPhones and the iPhone X will represent 41% of the company's shipment volume in 2017 and 50% in 2018. This growth will in part stem from price cuts across older-generation phablet models, which enable Apple to offer devices at lower price points.

The greater availability of device financing options and smartphone trade-in programs are helping to spur the growth of phablets and other high-end smartphones, according to IDC research manager Anthony Scarsella. The flagship lines — which phablets tend be part of — from Apple, Google, Samsung, and other vendors surpassed the $850 price point for the first time in 2017. But despite the growing costs of these devices, they’re becoming more attainable to consumers in numerous markets thanks to financing and trade-in programs.

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