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"Fresh from last week's Jana report claiming that emerging markets prefer large screens, there's\u00A0evidence that the appetite for big screens goes beyond smartphones in Asia. According to a new report from IDC, close to\u00A0one in four of all tablets shipped to\u00A0the continent\u00A0(minus Japan) is equipped with cellular voice capabilities.\r\n\r\nMore precisely, the analyst firm says 3.5 million of the 13.8 million tablets (with seven-inch screens) that shipped to Asia over the past three months were fitted with the ability\u00A0to make calls like a smartphone. That, IDC says, represents\u00A0an increase of more than 60 percent year-on-year.\r\n\r\nUnsurprisingly all of the voice call-enabled tablets run on Android -- that's likely to include Samsung's Tab range and more exotic devices such as the ASUS Fonepad.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\niCharts\r\n\r\n&amp;amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201CThis shift highlights the sustained interest among consumers, at least in emerging markets, to have a single mobile device for all their needs...\u00A0even if the device has a huge seven-inch screen on it. It also helps that these devices are quite affordable, playing in the entry-to-mainstream price bands in most markets,\u201D said IDC analyst\u00A0Avinash K. Sundaram.\r\n\r\n\r\n\u00A0The seven-inch Asus Fonepad tablet\r\nI've seen plenty of anecdotal evidence of\u00A0people in Southeast Asia, and particularly in Thailand where I live, who buy a tablet to access\u00A0the internet and a separate feature phone for making calls, primarily because the phone's battery life is not\u00A0affected by their Angry Birds addiction and whatever else\u00A0they do online. Combining the two into one device makes plenty of sense -- particularly since tablets are already widely used for taking photos and other activities traditionally covered by smartphones.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, IDC did not provide comparable data for the US, Europe and other part of the world -- though we've reached out to ask for it.\r\n\r\nCertainly plenty of tablets with calling capabilities ship to the rest of the world, but it seems Asia is the primary focus. Indeed, IDC says as many as half of the tablets shipped to\u00A0India and Indonesia come with voice calling enabled, which suggests that there is large demand for them.\r\n\r\nAlongside the rise of large smartphones -- or 'phablets,' if you can stand the word -- the growth\u00A0in tablet-phones is an interesting trend to watch\u00A0out for as more people come online for the first time in emerging markets.\r\n\r\nRelated:\u00A0This chart shows the world\u2019s internet usage shifting to smartphones\r\n\r\nImage credits: Sham Hardy/Flickr, and Intel Free Press/Flickr"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2014/08/20/report-asia-made-tablets-make-calls-account-25-shipments/>