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May 19, 2012, 4:31 a.m.
Joshua Flood Senior Analyst

ABI Research forecasts 208 million phablets, like the Samsung Galaxy Note, will be shipped globally in 2015. Despite the slow start for phablet smartphones in 2011, ABI Research believes the market is at the dawn of the phablet era. HTC, LG and Sony will each introduce phablet smartphones in 2012, joining the ranks of Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Nexus. Additionally, the release of the Samsung Galaxy S3 by the end of May, we will see another phablet smartphone.

In a recent report on phablet smartphones and super smartphones, ABI Research examines the potential opportunities for these new smartphones, and defines phablets with a touch screen size between 4.6 to 5.5 inches. Global shipments for phablets will increase by a factor of 10 in 2012 from 2011, and will exceed 208 million phablets in 2015.

With the predicted boom of phablet devices over the next 2-3 years, media tablet manufacturers may be worried. In 2011, 65 million media tablets were shipped globally. The media tablet market has grown at an astounding rate since the iPad was first introduced to the market. Over 100 million media tablets are projected to be shipped globally in 2012. ABI Research believes hybrid smartphone/tablet will compete only with the smaller media tablet (below 7 inches). These smaller media tablets are forecasted to remain the smallest segment of the total media tablet market.