When Samsung came out with the original Galaxy Note, critics laughed at it, comedians made fun of it and AT&T was the only US carrier that would even give it a chance on their network. However, after all of the criticism, the jokes and the exclusivity, the Galaxy Note 2 really took off in both acceptance and sales. It coined the term ‘phablet’ – a phone, yet large enough to be a small tablet. Today, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is probably the most sophisticated smartphone or phablet on the market today.
It has influenced a whole slew of phablet ‘wannabees,’ and even forced Apple to finally produce an iPhone ‘Plus’ series…and in a market where smartphone sales are becoming somewhat stagnant after years of tremendous growth…the iPhone Plus is turning out to be one of their most popular devices. Other manufacturers have taken a stab into the phablet market to compete with the Galaxy Note series, but none have been able to capture the success of the Note devices, not to mention any kind of stylus or S-Pen integration that comes close to matching the Samsung Note line. However, a new report from Korea suggests that Huawei is working on their own phablet with a stylus model to directly compete with the Galaxy Note series.
If any company can accomplish this task, it would be the huge Chinese company, Huawei. For starters, they desperately want to be a main player in the US smartphone market and secondly, they know how to build a true flagship device – just look at the build quality of their latest products. Huawei has already produced some phablet-sized devices, but also knows that in order to truly compete with the Galaxy Note series, they need to have great integration of a stylus – the one item that really distinguishes the Galaxy Note series from its competition. Samsung even bought a portion (invested) of Wacom, the masters of stylus devices, and they have consistently improved the S-Pen’s functionality each year. The source claims that Huawei went to Wacom to try to cut a deal, but for whatever reasons were unable to do so…however, they were able to secure another stylus manufacturer to work with them in developing a digitizer type stylus to “compete with Wacom’s products.”
Whether or not Huawei decides to produce an actual phablet with a stylus remains to be seen, but it certainly looks like they are headed in that direction. With the popularity of the phablets on the rise – according to an analytics firm (SA), the sale of phablets increased by 33.6-percent in 2014 from 15.4-percent in 2013 and will continue to increase another 35.3-percent in 2015 – it makes perfect sense for Huawei to go head-to-head with the Samsung Galaxy Note series. If Huawei can produce a great phablet with a stylus, it could certainly help their chances of gaining some of the US smartphone market.