port-man-teau (noun) /pôrtˈmantō/:

1. Large trunk or suitcase, typically made of stiff leather and opening into two equal parts
2. Consisting of or combining two or more separable aspects or qualities.

Well that’s the official definition, but by now we should have completely removed number 1 and changed it to what we really use it for: blending 2 words to create one over-used, annoying, and extremely cringing single word.

Bennifer. Brangelina. Tween. Frenemy. Jeggings. Tweeple. Chillax. Need I go on?

These words are like the worst puns ever. And we’re all guilty of it. Even me. When someone mentions Pinterest, I have this urge to say “Hmmm, pinteresting” (Come on man, stop it!) Doesn’t it just want to make you slap me?

We (as in us English speakers) have been “blending” words for decades and we (again, us English speakers) used to be good at it: Smog, Brunch, Biopic, Sony, Groupon and my current favorite Baconator. But at what point in time did we just give up and let these “new” words roll out and become part of our lexicon? That I don’t know. What I do know is there is a new word on the block. And that word is Phablet.

Yep. That’s right. Phablet. The blending of (smart)phone and tablet. There’s obviously a need for this word as how else do you describe devices with a touch screen between 4.6 and 5.5 inches? None of us want to be saying “I have a device that’s bigger-than-a-phone but smaller-than-a-tablet.” But come on people! Think of something better to call it at least.

Whatever name we settle on for the phablet, we must do it fast as according to research conducted by ABI they have predicted that by 2015 there will be 208 million phablets shipped around the world. I’m sure by now we’ve all seen the Rogers cell phone evolution commercial which shows the many outdated phones we all grew up with including what suspiciously looks like Zack’s phone from Saved by the Bell, the Nokia 8210, and ending with the rise in smartphones, tablets and finally phablets.

People that are hampered by smaller screen sizes such as watching videos, taking photographs and checking online maps are responsible for this sudden emergence of the phablet. Samsung, the world’s current phablet leaders, have already reported selling more than 5million Galaxy Note’s (with its 5.3inch screen) since its release in October 2011 and have predicted they will sell more than 10million Galaxy S3’s (with a 4.8inch screen) by July 2012.

HTC, LG and Huawei all plan to release their own similarly sized devices later this year and are encouraged by the fact that people that have smartphones actually speak on them less and less. Think about it, do you talk more on the phone than you text, tweet or video chat? I’m confident it’s the latter.

So why not have a bigger screen? It would make video chat and taking pictures a lot easier and you can’t complain that it’s too big. It’s not as if you keep your phone in your pocket anymore. These days we all carry bags, so shove it in there. Hey, even guys have murses. And yes, you can add that to the list.

Smartphone, Tablet or Phablet? Which do you prefer?