Samsung has stressed that phablets, which is a hybrid between smartphones and tablets, are here to stay.
"We know, and we've proven very effectively, that consumers like big-screen phones," said Nick DiCarlo, Samsung's vice president of product planning. "Ours has the S Pen ecosystem: the pen, the digitizer, the SDK and the apps. We have more work to do to make that ecosystem as good as it can be."
So when does a product exceed the boundaries in terms of a phablet? "We'll find out when we find out!" DiCarlo laughed. "With the 7in Galaxy Tab, the number one complaint we had in the US market was that we didn't launch it with voice calling. That took me by surprise."
"The funny emotion for me now is how small the (4.8in) Galaxy S3 feels," he added. "One of the things I think will be happening through 2013 and 2014 is that hand-feel won't be the overarching conversation. It'll be the experiences you have on the device. [People are] going to watch so much more video on [their devices] that their behaviour of what they do with TV is going to change."
During CES 2013, Chinese handset manufacturer Huawei revealed the smartphone with the world's largest screen found on a phone in the form of the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate (our impressions on the device can be found here).
Samsung, meanwhile, has already tasted success in the phablet market with its 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2, which sold over 5 million units during its first two months of availability. The device's successor, the Galaxy Note 3, is rumored to sport a 6.3-inch screen.
As evidently showcased during CES, 5-inch smartphones are expected to be more common in 2013.
