Will Making An iPhone Phablet Hurt Apple More Than It Will Help?

Interesting piece yesterday from Eric Savitz, Forbes Tech Editor on the need for an Apple phablet. Terrible term. I will say iPhone hybrid.

Samsung is widely credited with innovating form factor size to 5″ while Apple is resolute at 4. The problem for Apple is that the 5″ form is growing in popularity, particularly outside the USA. Eric quotes Barclays’ Ben Reitzes

Our global tech team believes that growth for the 5”+ smartphone market will exceed that of the overall market, rising from 27 million Phablet units in 2012 to 230 million in 2015 at a CAGR of 105%, not including a new iPhone version.

Reitzes sees China as the key battleground. I did a quick analysis of uptick in Samsung and Apple’s search interest following Samsung’s Super Bowl ad and will come back to the detail later today. However, first blush says Samsung got very little lift from the crafty ad in terms of Americans going online and then searching for Samsung or Galaxy.

However, look outside the USA and search interest increased significantly in India and the Philippines.

Whereas globally more people search for “iPhone” than for either Samsung or Galaxy, that picture is quite different in places like India where search interest this week has been 3 times stronger for Samsung than for Apple. It went up Saturday and Sunday. There has been a strong differential in favor of Samsung over the past 90 days.

In other words outside the USA, Apple might have a growing brand problem that could be addressed through a hybrid phone/tablet that matched more closely the interests and needs of people in these economies.

My contention, however, is that should Apple go down that road its reputation for innovation will suffer as it will be seen pursuing Samsung’s form factor, which given the litigation of 2012 be a gift for Samsung’s ad agency.

Source:forbes.com