My sister has switched from an iPad to her 5.5” iPhone Plus when she e-reads on the go, and a new study from the International Data Corporation suggests that Dorothy has lots of company.
While smartphone growth on the whole is slowing, big-screened “phablets” are a different story.
The iPhone 6 Plus’s resolution of 1920×1080 gives it 401 pixels per inch—far, far better than you’d get from even a deluxe E Ink machine such as the Kindle Voyage. And remember, there are ways of dealing with the glare issue, such as reading light letters against a dark background. Plus, you can enjoy text to speech, AWOL from recent E Ink Kindles.
Meanwhile here’s the IDC’s take on the phablet market, with paragraphing changed for greater readability:
“On the device front, phablets (smartphones with 5.5"-7" screens) will continue to drive shipment volumes in both emerging and developed markets.
“‘Since Apple finally delivered a larger screen smartphone with the iPhone 6+, the demand for large screened devices among consumers has been at a record high,’ said Anthony Scarsella, Research Manager with IDC’s Mobile Phones team. ‘Smartphones featuring display sizes from 5.5 inches to 6 inches are forecast to grow 84% in 2015 compared to last year, while devices featuring 5”-7” screens will make up over 71% of shipments by 2019.’
“It is also worth noting that the 5.5"-6" screen size band also plays the role of having the highest average selling prices for devices throughout the forecast. IDC expects this screen size band to be the placeholder for a majority of vendors’ flagship device launches throughout the forecast period. “
Many, of course, would say that seven-inch devices would actually be tablets. Whatever.
I’m curious what TeleRead community member’ current thoughts are on the pros and cons of phablets for e-reading. And which models are you especially keen on, and why?
Related: Phablets Are Too Big?, by Juli Monroe, as well as the readwrite article that inspired her to write the post.