iPhone 6 Plus leads soaring phablet demand

The US phablet market almost quadrupled in the first three months of the year, dominated by the iPhone 6 Plus.

The 6 Plus accounted for just under 45 per cent of phablet sales during this time, which now equates to 21 per cent of all smartphone sales in the US. Phablet share of the market stood at 6 per cent at the same point in 2014 - a rise of 15 per cent, according to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

Apple launched the 6 Plus alongside the iPhone 6 in September last year, marking the company's first steps into the phablet market. The 6 Plus sports a 5.5-inch display, while the iPhone 6 measures 4.7-inches diagonally. Previously, iPhone displays had never surpassed 4 inches.

The phablet, a phone-tablet portmanteau, has becoming increasingly popular in the past few years, initially driven by demand from eastern markets. As early as mid-2013, phablet sales overtook that of more modestly-sized smartphones in Asia/Pacific.

Apple's iOS operating system market share fell by by 0.2 per cent compared to the previous year, from 36.7 per cent to 36.5 per cent. Google's Android system in turn grew by 0.2 per cent, to 58.1 per cent.

^{The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have proved popular}

Meanwhile in Europe, iOS now represents 20.3 per cent of the market, a rise of 1.8 per cent from the first quarter of 2014. Android's share fell by 3.1 per cent compared to the same period to 68.4 per cent.

In Great Britain iOS' share grew by 6.9 per cent to 38.1 per cent, while Android's fell by 4.8 per cent to 52.9 per cent.

Windows Phone's share declined by 1.2 per cent during the year. 'Other' operating systems, including BlackBerry, dropped 1.2 percentage points.

iPhone sales on the whole were up 80 per cent or more in several markets including Canada, Mexico, Germany and Turkey.

Less than 10 per cent of Android users are currently running the latest version of the OS, comparatively, 81 per cent of iOS users are running the latest update.