Why Korea Love Phablets So Much?

Phablets are considered by some to be in a kind of no-man's land among devices — either oversized for a smartphone or too small for a tablet.

On the plus side, phablets, like the Samsung Galaxy Note, combine the features of both types of devices into one product.

The latest figures from app-services provider Flurry shows phablets have carved out a niche. In a worldwide sample of almost 100,000 iOS and Android devices, Flurry found 7% were phablets.

Overall, Samsung has a 60% market share in South Korea which tends to favor local manufacturers. Flurry said 85% of devices owned in South Korea were manufactured there.

Based on rapid device adoption in 2011 and 2012 and slowing adoption numbers in 2013, Flurry suggests South Korea is the first market to approach connected device saturation, serving as an early indicator of what smartphone adoption might look like in other worldwide markets as mobile market growth begins to slow.

Unlike other parts of the world, however, phone/tablet hybrids more commonly known as "phablets" are highly popular in South Korea. While 41 percent of connected devices in South Korea are phablets, the hybrids remain fairly unpopular in the rest of the world, making up just 7 percent of the market. Tablets were also more popular worldwide, making up 19 percent of connected devices, compared to just 5 percent in South Korea.

As companies like Samsung, LG, and HTC continue to produce larger smartphones, Apple too is said to be experimenting with additional iPhone sizes ranging from 4.8 inches to 6 inches, which could shift more of the market in Samsung’s home country towards Apple in the future.