OYSTER BAY, NY – ABI Research forecasts 208 million phablets will be shipped globally in 2015.

Global shipments for phablets (with a touch screen size between 4.6" and 5.5") will increase by a factor of 10 in 2012 from 2011.

Despite the slow start for phablet smartphones in 2011, the research firm believes the market is at the dawn of the phablet era. HTC, LG and Sony will each introduce phablet smartphones in 2012, joining the ranks of Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Nexus. Samsung will also release the Galaxy S3 by the end of May, ABI says.

With the predicted boom of phablet devices over the next two to three years, media tablet manufacturers may be worried, says ABI. In 2011, 65 million media tablets were shipped globally. More than 100 million media tablets are projected to be shipped globally in 2012. ABI Research believes hybrid smartphone/tablet will compete only with the smaller media tablet (below 7"). These smaller media tablets are forecasted to remain the smallest segment of the total media tablet market.