In March 2013 iGR, a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile communications industry conducted a survey of 1,000 wireless users. The study inquired about preferred brands, and how the devices were used. One question in particular centered on the size of a smartphone’s screen. 40 percent of the respondents wanted the size they had now, while only 21 percent wanted a larger screen.

Is this really a surprise? Smartphones have become a bigger part of our lives and we have grown comfortable with how and when to use them for things other than just Internet surfing. They have become hubs to interact and digest information, whether it be social, industrial, or travel.   Each user has the ability to customize his or her phone to specific needs and uses. While one user wants to use the capabilities of a smartphone to remain in touch with friends and family, another may want to use it purely for business reasons. Apps allow the same device to be tailored for different uses, making each one customized.

When rumors circulated the Internet about Apple’s (News - Alert) release of a tablet that we now know as the iPad, the idea was criticized. Who would want to talk in a device that big?! The Internet hosted images of Steve Jobs (News - Alert) talking on an iPad. We now understand how this device, and others like it, fit into our daily lives. Yet now we have “phablets", devices with screens larger than five inches diagonally. Do all consumers want phablet sized phones?

As smartphones reach parity in terms of processor speed, storage and camera quality, the only space left to compete is in screen size. Consumers then need to ask themselves when does a smartphone give way to a tablet computer or to a laptop? 

Users who desire larger screen sizes on their smartphones will have plenty of choice this year, which has been dubbed the year of a “phablet.” Shipments of devices with five inch or larger screens will increase nearly 228 million during the next three years. 

The question, though, is still where a phone should end and everything else should begin.