This Year It’s All About The Phablet: Could You Be Throwing Out Your iPhone For This New Techie Trend?

We’re being bombarded with the new technology gadgets of the moment, what’s cool to have, what’s cool to not have anymore… we’re finding it hard to keep up!

What we do know though is that 2013 is set to be the year of the ‘phablet’.

The what?

Phablets have been tipped to be the biggest gadget of this year, they are touchscreen gadgets mid-way between iPad-style tablets and smartphones.

Several companies are expected to unveil the 5-inch phones at these year’s massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and others will show off six-inch devices, nearly as big as the Kindle.

These ‘mid-sized’ devices are predicted to be a hit.

Will you be investing?!

"We expect 2013 to be the Year of the Phablet," said Neil Mawston, UK-based executive director of Strategy Analytics' global wireless practice.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note II, unveiled at Berlin’s IFA trade show, has been a surprise hit, selling five million units.

The tablets are expected to be a hit in Asia in particular.  A poll of nearly 5,000 readers of Yahoo's Indonesian website chose Samsung's Galaxy Note 2 as their favourite mobile phone of 2012, ahead of the iPhone 5.

"Users have realised that a nearly 5-inch screen smartphone isn't such a cumbersome device," said Joshua Flood, senior analyst at ABI Research in Britain.

"I think phone size was a preconceived notion based on voice usage," said John Berns, a Singapore-based executive who works in the information technology industry.

"Smaller was better until phones got smart, became visual."

Another technology trend… will you be keeping up?