Large smartphones (otherwise known as phablets), are already a growing trend in Asia, having outshipped notebooks and tablets last year. But IDC finds that now even larger devices, tablets of 7” screen sizes and above, are increasingly shipping with cellular voice capabilities, and such devices are getting more traction in the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) region, breaching the 25% mark in the second quarter of 2014.
According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker report, about 13.8 million units of tablets were shipped in the APeJ region in Q2 2014, of which nearly 25% (around 3.5 million units) had voice calling over cellular networks as an option built-in to the device. This translates to more than 60% growth on a year-on-year basis in unit terms for this category of tablets, which also incidentally happen to be 100% Android-based.
“Tablets that allow voice calls over cell networks have been around for a while now, as the first generation of Samsung Tabs did have that option, albeit only activated through a Bluetooth headset,” says Avinash K. Sundaram, Senior Market Analyst of Client Devices team at IDC Asia/Pacific, in a statement.
“This shift highlights the sustained interest among consumers, at least in emerging markets, to have a single mobile device for all their needs – be it watching movies and soap operas, taking pictures, texting or making calls, even if the device has a huge 7” screen on it. It also helps that these devices are quite affordable, playing in the entry-to-mainstream price bands in most markets,” Sundaram adds.
IDC believes this trend shift will continue to gain momentum, as these devices are addressing a real consumer need – a single converged mobile device that is also a great value for money. “For now, it does look like the Asian love for bigger screens is set to continue,” Sundaram concludes.
Note: IDC defines devices with screen-sizes 7” and above as tablets, while those below 7” as mobile phones.
Source: IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve updated our poll to ask, “Would you hold your iPad up to your face to make a phone call?”
No!
The other consequence (of going ultra-large) is the need to carry something to carry the smartphone, like a handbag or backpack. And then, you need to “unpack it” out of wherever it is being carried to use it. Current (and earlier) iPhones equal better usability and convenience.
I don’t have it to my face.
I just speak to it. I do it with Skype and FaceTime all the time.
If I want privacy or not to disturb people around me, I use earbuds.
Exactly, stupid article. It’s not rocket science.
By extrapolation, a stupid MDN poll, as well.
If you don’t want to disturb people around you, how about going to a nice, quiet room by yourself?
We THANK YOU for not having to listen to 1 side of a conversation.
Point taken. I would never do it on a train or plane, but sometimes you take calls, like at work, or in a cab, etc., where people hear one side of the conversation.
Apparently, they’ve never heard of speaker phone mode?
Even if everyone started buying these things and you start seeing people everywhere using it up to their ear, it would still look stupid.
I am waiting for the shoe tablet.
Maxwell.
Hilarious!
Or The Wall Phone.
No portability, but it doesn’t get any bigger! And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it.
Or The Head Phone.
Total anonymity. You’re just a giant phone walking around with a human body.
Those SameSong Notes look ridiculous as a conventional cellphone.
BTW-What did you think of the White Hat Aviator browser?
Aviator looks good! No nagging me to sign into Google. Lots of new security odds and ends I haven’t seen before:
– It uses Apple’s Keychain Access to control revoked certificates vs Google nearly worthless version.
– It lets you choose whether or not to use servides to resolve navigation errors and to complete searches. (I want to study details about these options).
– You can send suspicious downloaded files to WhiteHat. Thank you.
– It comes with Disconnect already installed. Excellent.
I never have liked the boring and minimal Chrome Preferences GUI. Oh well.
Now I have to weigh it down with a pile more extensions!
Thanks for reminding me to check it out. It’s MUCH nicer than the alternatives.
Shablet!
Ah… the original Maxwell Smart Phone. :o)
No, but there are times when I could be using a headset while looking at my iPad mini.
I would still want a reasonable size phone when it’s the only device I’m carrying.
Different device sizes for different uses.
No. You could use earbuds, headphones, a bluetooth headset.
Don’t need to look silly trying to use it like a handset.
I have several bluetooth earpieces, but have been using a corded headset more this year as Bluetooth eats up the battery quicker. They work just fine with Skype or normal telephony.
Yes!
What a fallacy. There are plenty of ways to institute voice communication through a tablet without holding it up to your head.
No one will stick an iPad to their ear to make a phone call but they would be very happy to make a phone call with it via the same Apple ear buds or BT ear piece they use with their phones today.
People use the phone as a phone less and less as text messages and email are the normal communication methods most people use. Phone calls are still necessary though.
Adding phone capability to the iPad mini would certainly boost their popularity.
My first thought is that this is exactly how we got the Surface: certain people’s insistence that one device support all use cases, rather than different devices optimized for different circumstances.
But I can see the benefit of being able to field phone calls with your pad: just not through the ridiculous in each of holding it up to your head. That’s why one of the biggest features about the new OS is that I’m waiting for is Continuity. I think it would be great for my iPhone to ring on the charger and for me to take the call on my iPad in hand. It’s not because I want one device to serve all purposes, it’s that I can use one device instead of the other as convenient.
(I’m not going to hold up my pad in front of my face for a 20 minute FaceTime call, but then I wouldn’t do that from my phone either. Audio only is sufficient, either over the speaker phone or with the earbuds.)
I expect MS to push the idea in their next set of commercials of holding a Surface next to the face.
I don’t mean Surface tablets.
I mean the original Big Ass Table.
I plan to have an even bigger phone. I intend to use my 27″ iMac as a phone with Yosemite. I do not plan to hold it up to my face, I will use it just like FaceTime.
I plan to hold mine up to my ear.
Hell no. It’s one of the dumbest common sight on the street.
Let us make sure we’re clear on the question here: Do we want to hold the tablet up to our ear/face to make a phone call?
This isn’t about including voice call functionality in the 4G iPads (although that would also be a valid question); it is about whether people here are willing to do what some populations in Asia are apparently doing in increasing numbers — handling the tablet the way we used to handle a telephone receiver, by pressing it against their ear while in a phone call.
According to MDN’s survey so far, the answer is quite clear (no).
Just because they’re selling them that way doesn’t mean they’re being used that way. We have an iPad with cellular data but it rarely gets used.
Holding phat phablet up to face: “Can you see me now?”
In all fairness, MDN’s question isn’t quite in sync with what the article implies. The primary point of the article is that the tablets that include voice call functionality are rapidly growing in popularity (in parts of Asia, at least). Other than the Samsung marketing picture, the article isn’t implying that these populations are using their tablets like giant telephone receivers (putting them against their ear while in call); it is entirely likely that majority of those who use voice call functionality of these tablets do so using bluetooth or wired headsets.
A better survey question would be if we would actually want an iPad 4G (mini/Air) to have the voice call functionality (regardless of how we were to make those calls — headset, bluetooth, iPad-to-face). And the results of such a survey would likely be quite different from the one above.
My answer is, no!
Don’t let the phone company rip you off anymore. Go VOIP.
And support beleaguered Microsoft.. Us skype out
But that makes no sense! My mobile carrier, as well as my landline phone company, both give me flat rate for unlimited voice calling. As a matter of fact, Verizon (my landline operator) nowadays only offers VoIP with their FiOS (fibre optic) packages anyway. And my mobile operator (T-Mobile) only has unlimited-everything plans; in other words, you can’t even get a metered minutes plan anymore.
So, there is really no point in jumping through hoops, installing all these various apps so that I can make voice phone calls circumventing the built-in phone functionality when that will only consume my data plan, while my voice plan gives me unlimited talking anyway.
I have TruPhone installed on my Macs and my iOS devices. Nice VOIP capability from the iPod Touch on up. Where you have WiFi, you have a phone unless OTT is blocked on the network.
When calls come in I can answer from the device I am working on instead of picking up/finding my cell. The overseas rates are also better than AT&T – my cell carrier. A VOIP app can save you a lot of money traveling overseas.
BTW- the earbud set that comes with the iPhone will reportedly work with VOIP apps on iPads and iPod Touches- I know for a fact that Plantronics Bluetooth sets work just fine as well as the Bluetooth integration on many cars.
Having an iPad with a VOIP app came in handy last December when my car was rear ended in a rural area where the phone got no useable signal on AT&T 4G. My Verizon hotspot and TruPhone on the iPad made the calls to police, insurance, home and the wrecker service. It is once to be able to travel with a backup phone and the ability to use WiFi to make calls.
So to answer MDN’s question- no. But I do make and receive calls on my iPad.
1-Speakerphone
2-Bluetooth set
3-iPhone Earbuds
Thank God I’m not in Asia.
My view is that a lone person in public speaking into a device (of any size) is a recognisable action, but that speaking without one is not, as it is indistinguishable from the social stigma of talking to oneself, a sign of derangement.
Holding up a dinner plate and speaking to it is thus a clear signal that the person is not speaking to YOU.
That doesn’t subtract the breach of social etiquette, the display of narcissism, the gauche posture, or the disclosure to anyone in earshot of the details of your pathetic life.
I’ve held my phone up to my ear with the headphones plugged in just so I didn’t appear to be talking to myself. Which doesn’t mean I’m not crazy, does it?
I’m so sick of this type of article using the absurd to make those of us who just want a simple life seem like jerks trying to rock everybody’s boat. Here it is: I don’t want a tablet that I can put up to my face. For that matter, I don’t want a phone that I can put to my face. After trying Android (total disaster) over the iPhone 5 and quickly selling the Android and getting the iPhone 5 after all (as a default without any excitement except for that extra row of icons it offered on its still tiny little screen), I gave up on Apple listening to its customers and delivering a phone with a screen size that I could work on as well. All I want is ONE device. I’ve told everybody at Apple the same thing. ONE device – preferrably the iPad. I have a nice Motorolla bluetooth headset which I use all day long (I have 3 of the same model as a matter of fact) to listen to the radio, to hear the sounds of apps that I run, to use Skype, and any other app that I want to use. But when my tiny little phone rings, I have to stop my music on the headset, remove the headset and try to hold onto this tiny little phone. When I heard that Apple had finally awakened and would deliver a larger handset in the iPhone 6, I immediately got excited. However, something happened since then… They came on the WWDC and announced Continuity. Now, when my tiny little phone rings while I’m working on my iPad, I may only need to tap somewhere on the iPad to answer the call. Apple still requires me to have two devices but I get to really use just one. Because ONE is all I need after all. So now, if Continuity works the way I hope it will (probably won’t though), I may even be in a position with my three headsets, iPad Air and TINY little iPhone 5 to not even need to purchase a new iPhone – not a 4.7″, not a 5.5″, not a freaking 6″ iPad mini or anything else. I personally think they could have maintained a lot of loyalty from me that they lost when they released the iPhone 5 if they had just used all the room in the iPad to give me voice antenna in my iPad way back then. Sometimes it’s good to not be the first to market, may even be admirable. But when you make the baby wait too long for the bottle, he may just dehydrate and lose faith in you. I’ve lost a bit of faith in Apple for the waiting and a bit more in Apple and others who seem to constantly insult those of us who just want a simple life with everything in one device and don’t care a thing in the world what others think of us for wearing our headsets and not sporting the latest iPhone. I don’t ask anybody to adopt my kind of lifestyle but it would be nice not feeling like others are berating me because I want simplicity in a device that I can truly multipurpose to fit my life rather than buying a number of device that will require maintenance and frequent replacement.
iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPad Air and iPhone 5 user.
Your response reflects the kind of frustration that outliers often feel when their personal preferences or needs don’t conform to those of the majority.
While some people will tell you with disdain why they don’t care much for the phablet concept (or a tablet with voice calling functionality), the bottom line is that, without any disdain, there is a reason why majority of users don’t think a very large phone is practical. I look around my office building and the men I see around me carry their phones in their pants pockets. Anything noticeably bigger than 5/5s will be rather difficult to comfortably carry in the pocket. While an iPad mini with phone functionality would cover a lot more miles than the current model, as a phone, it would likely require significant change in user habits. The phone has become a pocket accessory, much like house keys, or wallets. As such, it is ALWAYS on our person. A iPad mini-sized phone device would stop being that and most people would likely have to begin making compromises regarding carrying it. While women will likely have no major problems adjusting (a bag / pocketbook / large purse will easily fit a bigger device), there are very few men who would accept having to carry a bag of sort on their person in order to fit a phone that used to fit in a pocket.
The point here is, I’m sure there are use-cases that can clearly demonstrate the advantage of an integrated phone / tablet functionality, but they are rather special and rare cases. Apple has always eliminated / omitted features that aren’t used by the majority of their users (SmartCard slot, analogue modem port, SuperDrive, etc). Engineering and manufacturing an iPad mini with voice functionality would present a specific expense. If not enough people are expected to use the feature, Apple will simply not deliver it. In the past, this has sometimes chased loyal Apple users away, to the competitors. It is possible that some will defect for the same reason here (and some may have already done that). From the perspective of Apple, that is the cost of doing business (and probably lower than the cost of delivering the obscure feature in their product).
One thing is certain, though: if we get to see voice calling feature in the iPad mini, that would be a clear indication that there are enough of people like you who will use such functionality to make it worthwhile to Apple.
Thank you for at least taking it seriously and not rejecting the idea because it doesn’t fit the Apple fan norm. Being in IT, I carry my MBP or MBA practically everywhere and use the phone as a hotspot for work issues when I need to. I realize this isn’t something that every Apple user would want. There was a time when the 3G original iPad first came out that everybody around me was saying nobody needs cellular tech on an iPad. All you would use it for is e-mail so no biggie. Now it’s huge for the cellular companies and it’s a big part of their data plan price points. I can see that some people may want an iPhone and an iPad and keep everything compartmentalized. I’m just not the norm. But I do know many others like me. Life is busy. I like having everything in one place on one device. To dismiss that desire from some users as has happened would be like saying we don’t need different colored iPhones or why would anybody want fingerprint technology on the phone – I’ve encountered both of those. Frankly, I’m yet to see a reason for the colors of the 5c but I’m sure there are users who love those phones and I won’t try to marginalize them. I just wish articles like this one would take seriously those of us who like keeping up with one device that is capable of doing a lot of things. Apple is certainly moving miles ahead of the competition with Continuity. For that, I’m grateful.
I know that I sure wouldn’t do this. I think people using phablets look like morons.
It would be good to know how many of these phablet buyers are first time phone owners, and if they grew up with a phone. In developed countries most people have had phones in their homes for generations. That is not the case for most of the world. Having a phone number makes you look better to employers and dates. Although the phone may not get used a lot, it is worth paying a little more for a device for the status. Most people like to show something off when they first get it, epically if your the first in your family. So a big ass phone may not seem a silly to them as it does us. They might get laid with it where we won’t.
Nope, but i would love the convenience of using is as a speaker phone !
I wouldn’t want to carry an iPad around all the time, attached to my waist, under my arm, over my shoulder. That’s what phones or even iPod Touches are for. There’s a definite need for mobility.
I’m 44 years old. I love hearing you guys talk about mobility considering that my first pc was gargantuan by today’s standards. In my lifetime, I’ve seen laptops come along and the rage to get “mobile phones” to be “bar phones” and now seeing them get a little bigger. I used to carry huge text books to class while now, all those books are in digital format on a device smaller than the small notebook I took notes in – not to mention the device has a notebook up that holds more notes than I ever took in school. I graduated high school when I was 16 and I’ve always been the youngest in the crowd… Until lately. I must confess it’s not so awful to be the old guy on the sideline smiling at the young folk who are marveling at the technology that is cyclical and a tad bit predictable – at least in its unpredictability if nothing more. Though I would want to carry my iPad everywhere (the eyes aren’t what they used to be either), I rate your comment EXCELLENT simply because you reminded me what it’s like to be young again. Sincerely, THANK YOU!
One device to do everything I need is most desirable. I don’t need both an iPhone and iPad when ONE glorious device will SUFFICE. As others pointed out, you have options to talk discreetly without holding a large device to your face. Bring it on, Apple.