Tablets that can make phone calls are surprisingly popular
The idea of making phone calls on a tablet is still a fairly new one, but it is apparently an idea that is catching on... in Asia, at least. This might not be much of a surprise, actually, because it is something of a natural progression for the region. The Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) region has been where phablets have been very popular. The theory is that users in those regions can't afford both a phone and a tablet, so the phablet was a perfect catch-all device.
However, new numbers from IDC make it seem like users were simply waiting for voice-enabled tablets. According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker report, there were about 13.8 million tablets shipped in the APeJ region in Q2 2014, and a full 25% of those were voice-enabled devices. This is a huge jump for voice-enabled tablets, the category up 60% year-over-year. In some emerging markets, like India and Indonesia, voice enabled tablets have almost reached 50% market share.
Interestingly, all of the tablets shipped in this segment are Android devices, which also isn't so surprising, given that there are no iOS or Windows tablets that make phone calls. It also should be noted that there's no guarantee that these voice-enabled tablets are being used for phone calls. Shipments correlate to sales, but sales doesn't exactly predict usage.
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