From PCs to Tablets to Phablets: Everything Has Its Ups and Downs

Computers, starting from the abacus up to the powerful, smart devices we have today, have always been there to assist us with our every sticky situation, be it simple or complex. As years, decades, centuries, and millennia pass by towards the future, major shifts in the application of technology have been observed. Once there’s something that makes better sense than what we’re used to, we subscribe to the paradigm shift and move forward. It is but natural. In simple terms, it is hello to the new and goodbye to the old.

And now in this 21^st century when technology revamps itself faster than ever, we have witnessed big changes in a span of a few years. Industries fall subsequent to the rise of another. And this is what’s evidently happening today; the tablet industry is being threatened by the oversized smartphones known as the phablets. Ever since tablets have come into the limelight, they have dramatically decimated PC sales globally. The mainstay household contraption was replaced by the ubiquitous touchscreen slate device. However, the glorious success of the tablet manufacturers won’t last that long, for the phablets are here to steal the show.

According to the latest report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, tablet shipments all across the globe are expected to hit 221.3 million units by the end of 2013, slightly lower from the original forecast of 227.4 million. Even so, this quantity is 53.5% more than the shipments in 2012. In the succeeding years, forecast on growth is projected to decline to 22.2% year after year until its annual market growth plummets to a single-digit percentage in 2017.

Tablets can be classified into two major groups according to their display size. Nowadays, you can choose between the 7-inchers and those that pack a 10-inch screen. As far as the figures are concerned, the market has trended toward small tablets over the last 24 months. But starting when the phablets were introduced onto the market, they have been much more favored by consumers no matter how ridiculous the device looked initially. The slight difference in screen size of 7-inch tablets and 6-inch phones makes consumers who own the latter less likely to purchase the former. This however can spark a brand new interest to their bigger counterparts, but it’s a fact that the smaller tablets are more compact and relatively cheaper than the 10-inchers.