Five Nexus devices rumored to hit the market on November 5th, Android's 5th birthday

A reliable source for TalkAndroid says that Google is going to celebrate the 5th birthday of Android on November 5th by releasing five different Nexus devices from 5 different manufacturers. There is also speculation that by Thanksgiving (November 22nd), Google will be selling the devices in the Google Play Market. What makes this fascinating is the earlier speculation that the next Nexus would be powered by Android 5.0, Jelly Bean. There also has been some talk about a Nexus tablet to be released this year. This is one of those times when we clearly need to wait to hear from Google itself.

We've already passed on much of this information to you already, but now we have a better handle on when to expect the five Nexus devices to launch. Google I/O is going to be on June 27th which means we will probably learn a lot more then about what Google has in mind  in terms of the Nexus devices and Android 5.0. In case you're wondering when the last Nexus was released, it was October 18th when the Samsung GALAXY Nexus was launched after a one week delay. That's certainly close enough to November 5th for any conspiracy buff to believe the rumors.

source: TalkAndroid via MobileSyrup

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ABI: Phablet market to reach 208 million by 2015

Did you know that the Samsung Galaxy S III is a phablet? That is according to ABI Research. The firm defines a phablet as a device with a screen that ranges between 4.6 inches and 5.5 inches, which would certainly cover the 4.8 inch screen on the Samsung Galaxy S III. The term was first coined to describe the 5.3 inch Samsung GALAXY Note and we wonder if API's definition is too broad. Nonetheless, based on API's criteria, the research firm sees the phablet market hitting 208 million devices by 2015. This year, the number of phablets shipped will be 10 times the number from 2011. Back when the Apple iPhone was launched in 2007, the 3.5 inch screen was considered large. To put things in perspective, the 2.81 inch interior and exterior screens on the LG Voyager were much smaller and yet were characterized back then as being "generous". Most smartphones and featurephones went about as large as 3.2 inches except for Apple. Finally, the HTC HD2 launched overseas in November 2009 with a 4.3 inch display and that was considered to be enormous. By March 2010, the device had hit the U.S. market thanks to T-Mobile.

The 4.3 inch screen became the top size for some until the Samsung Infuse 4G broke the barrier in the States with a 4.5 inch screen a little over a  year ago. But even that would not be enough to qualify as a phablet. That category features the Samsung GALAXY Note, the Samsung GALAXY Nexus, the Samsung Galaxy S III, HTC One X and the HTC EVO 4G LTE to name a few. Other models from LG and Huawei  that will launch this year, will also be in the phablet category.

With this surge in handsets carrying such large screens, it should be interesting to see if the 5.3 inches of the Samsung GALAXY Note becomes the new ceiling for now or will someone try to top even that?

source: ABIResearch via Engadget

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