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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Social Networking Tops Phablet Usage

A recent International Data Corp. survey found that phablet sales are on the rise and becoming a threat to tablet sales. Opera Mediaworks followed with a study that showed 54% of phablet owners use the device for social networking, which is much higher than the global average for all mobile gadgets.

The phablet is a hybrid device combining smartphone features with a larger screen, ranging from 5 in. to 7 in. The Opera research studied traffic running through its mobile ad platform in March and April to see what sites and apps were being used.

Social networking on smartphones ran a distant second in the study, at less than 30%, with tablet usage coming in around 10%. On the other hand, tablets continue to be the device of choice when it comes to playing games or watching videos.

“What we discovered is people now want to use their [phablets] for both purposes: to run around town, use the map, check email, text a friend that you’re running late,” Scott Swanson, president of Opera Mediaworks said in an article for Re/code. “Then they were also using it at home, sometimes instead of a tablet, for checking social media.”