Some mashups are just strange. Or, maybe they just sound strange. Either way, the phablet is the newest thing to drive device sales sky high. In case you aren’t on-trend, the phablet is a phone that’s larger than your average smartphone but also smaller than a tablet.

Someone out there thought that the world needed something between a phone and a tablet, and so the phablet was born.

Apple is one of the few companies that’s not jumping on this bandwagon, and some think that’s a mistake. But, I have to wonder how much room there is on the market for devices of this kind, and whether or not it’s merely a fad.

Growth Doesn’t Mean Much

Reports circulating on tech blogs today will tell you that phablet sales are up. Back in the 1990s, sales of calculator watches were up at one point too, but that trend didn’t last very long. The stats tell us that a third of the smartphones that shipped in the first quarter of 2014 were bigger than five inches. Once you reach past the 5 inch mark, you’re in phablet territory. And guess what? Those sales aren’t just in Asia.

Consumers in the U.S. are buying phablets too. So are consumers in Europe. Does this craze make any sense? You can’t easily carry your phablet in your pocket, and phablets are slightly awkward to use if you’re using one for the sake of a basic phone, but they do come in handy if you want to browse the web and don’t want to whip out your tablet or laptop. For this writer, though, phablets are just too big and awkward to warrant a purchase. Sure, there are times when I wanted something smaller than my tablet, but those are few and far between. When it comes to a phone, I want something compact.

Is Apple Going Down?

Some analysts believe that Apple’s choice not to go the way of the phablet means that Apple will be left behind. Reports of Apple’s newest phone in the making show mockups of a phone that’s under that five inch mark, and that might mean that Apple isn’t interested in this trend at all. That could also mean that it is, indeed, a trend, or it might mean that Apple is just missing the boat on this one.

Some argue that Apple might create a line of phones that are different sizes, so that consumers can have a choice. But, when it comes down to it, the phablet is really starting to pop up everywhere, and it doesn’t really matter what Apple is doing. If you are looking for something that’s a cross between a phone and a tablet, you may want to check out the phablet. There are a lot of phablet options on the market, and I’ll make sure to review some on this site soon too. The word phablet might sound strange, but it’s one of those mashups that will soon be entered into everyday vocabulary.

Do you own a phablet?