Once the butt of tech journalist jokes, the oversized "phablet" smartphone format actually means big business-- w2013 shipments set to reach 60.4 million units, up from 25.6m for 2012, according to IHS iSuppli.
The estimates cover smartphones with 5-inch displays or larger.
Allowing such "vigorous" double-digit growth is expansion in low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) LCD capacity, as well as price reductions in large-size, high-resolution smartphone displays.
iSuppli forecasts global phablet shipments will reach 146m units by 2016.
Judging from CES 2013, China has the big smartphone lead-- Huawei has the 6.1-inch Ascend Mate (reportedly the biggest smartphone in the world), as well as the 5-inch 443dpi Ascend D2. Other 5-inch Chinese handsets include the ZTE Grand S, the Alcatel-branded One Touch Scribe HD from TCL and the Lenovo IdeaPhone K5.
Small (7-inch) and cheap tablets also prove popular at CES, with models such as the Acer Iconia B1-9A71 and the Archos 70 Titanium, together with a variety of hybrid tablet/laptop prototypes.