Samsung has concluded their “Samsung’s Analyst Day,” and one of the trinkets of wisdom that came out at the conference, is when our good old buddy, JK Shin, Joint CEO and Head of the Mobile Division, came on stage and promptly announced that Samsung prefers that the Galaxy Note 3 be called a “Ponblet,” not a “Phablet.” Shin claims the word describes devices that offer what he calls, “optimized multitasking platforms on large displays.” I am not sure how he gets “Ponblet” out of that description, but Samsung even had a slide up on the screen to show what he meant:
I suppose if they “created” that category, they have a right to name it whatever they choose, but for myself, I will stick with “Phablet;” it just makes more sense to me. Before Samsung developed its Galaxy Note series, Dell was the only one brave enough to try its hand at a big displayed phone, the Dell Streak brought out in 2010. The Streak was, at the time, a whopping 5-inch tablet/phone that ran Android, but with only .5GB of RAM and a poorly executed touchscreen, it died a slow death. When Samsung came out with the 5.2-inch Galaxy Note 1 in 2011, complete with a built-in stylus, or S-Pen, as they like to call it, critics and users laughed at it and anointed it an instant failure…except for the over 5 million AT&T customers that purchased the device. Samsung, never one to be swayed by naysayers, promptly launched the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2 in 2012 – this time around critics and reviewers were no longer laughing, but taking “note,” so to speak.
In 2013, Samsung released the Galaxy Note 3 and this combination of Large display + Portability + Handwriting has proven to be a winner, to the tune of about 50 million Note devices sold so far. Samsung can call it a “Fonblet” or whatever they want, but should simply call it a “winner.” It is being copied by the HTC One Max, and others as their displays surpass the 5-inch mark. But the Galaxy Note 3 is not just another pretty 5.7-inch face – it has an S-Pen with doodling and handwriting capabilities, other software to take advantage of that pen, and true multitasking in one window.
Much of this conference was to lay out Samsung’s future intentions – As seen in the above capture, they want to focus on new products, such as flexible and foldable phones, but they also are devoting much time into software. They are fully aware that their TouchWiz is in need of a major update, as well as continuing to expand the Galaxy Note software to make it an even more productive device.
Let us know in the comments or on Google+ what you think about this “Fonblet” name and anything else you have to say about Samsung!