Apple’s first phablet has grabbed a 41% US market share

It has taken the iPhone 6 Plus little more than a month to firmly establish itself as one of America's most popular phablets.

The latest data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, which covers smartphone sales and consumer insights over the three months to the end of October, reveals that despite only going on sale on September 19, the iPhone 6 Plus already accounts for 41% of US phablet sales.

Phablets, which in terms of Kantar's data are classified as smartphones with a display 5.5-inches or greater, have been widely expected to become mainstream devices in 2014.

In the Asia Pacific region, the handsets already account for 25% of all new smartphones where consumers are seeing the benefit of owning one larger mobile device that offers the best features of both a smartphone and a small tablet.

The iPhone 6 Plus is Apple's first phablet and this year also saw Google go bigger still with its first 5-inch plus handset, the Nexus 6, which sports a huge, 5.9-inch display.

And while interest and demand are clearly growing, in the US at least, phablets are still very much a niche.

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's figures show that phablets currently make up just 10% of the total US smartphone market.

However, the company notes that just one year ago, the figure stood at 2%.

New iPhone 6 Plus owners who were questioned at the point of sale about why they chose the handset indicated the handset's larger screen (58%) was the primary driver.
When consumers who had plumped for the smaller iPhone 6 instead were asked the same question, bigger screen size (60%) was also the most popular answer.