The Phablet Craze Gets Crazier

By Tim Beyers – Feb 27, 2013 at 5:17PM

NASDAQ: AAPL

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Consumers want something more than a phone.

Suddenly, phablets have become a popular Reese's Peanut Butter Cup-style mashup of technology. Shrink a tablet, give it a six-inch screen, add a phone antenna, and -- voila! -- you've got a phablet. Both LG and Samsung showed off new models at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

ABI Research says consumers purchased more than 83 million phablets last year. They'll buy another 150 million in 2013, ABI says, with exactly none of those sales going to Apple (AAPL 1.27%). Like Steve Jobs before him, CEO Tim Cook tends to eschew hybrid devices. For now, all he'll say about Apple's plans is to expect "great stuff" in the months ahead.

Should investors be worried that Apple is ceding the phablet market to peers? The Motley Fool's Alison Southwick asks Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova for his perspective in the video below. Please watch, and then leave a comment to let us know what you think.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Apple at the time of publication. Check out Tim's web home and portfolio holdings or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.

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