Why 'phablets' will be the biggest gadget of 2013

Tech giants will unveil gadgets mid-way between tablet PCs and phones at Las Vegas's CES tech show this week - and analysts predict they will be a hit.

‘Phablets’ have been tipped to be the biggest gadget of 2013 - touchscreen gadgets mid-way between iPad-style tablets and smartphones.

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

Analysts expect the ‘mid-sized’ devices to be a hit.

"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 - despite scepticism from tech pundits.

This week, Chinese telecommunications giants ZTE and Huawei will show off five-inch-plus Android tablets - with other manufacturers expected to follow suit.

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.

ZTE, which collaborated with Italy's designer Stefano Giovannoni for the Nubia phablet, is scheduled to launch its 5-inch Grand S, while Huawei brings out the Ascend Mate, sporting a whopping 6.1-inch screen, making it only slightly smaller than Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet.

"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. He recently upgraded his Note for the newer Note 2 and bought another for his girlfriend for Christmas. "Smaller was better until phones got smart, became visual."