In an interview with Forbes, product strategy executive at Samsung, Hankil Yoon, confirmed they had sold 2 million units of the Galaxy Note so far, and plan to sell another 10 million by the end of the year.
Launched in the UK in November, the Note is a crossover device with its 5.3” inch display sitting it between a phone and a tablet, creating a new genre of devices which some are coining as Phablets.
Yoon said of the Note:
I think people don’t know what they need. But as soon as they start using it, they think that’s what they need. I’m not going back to other devices now.
It seems HTC agree with Samsung, with their recently announced HTC One X device sporting a large 4.7” display their largest phone screen size to date.
I had a Galaxy Note for about 2 weeks before deciding it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t so much the size of the device, which took some adjusting to, but my inability to get on with Android that forced us to part ways. The Note is certainly interesting to carry around, and for people that predominantly consume media and data, rather than make calls (a group I am squarely in) it it extremely appealing.
Using the
It’s not pocketable in the traditional sense, it could slip in a jacket pocket no problem but I wouldn’t carry it in jeans/trouser pockets for fear of breaking it.
Using it as a phone is where I struggled most, its large – dialling or texting one handed is tricky, and you do feel conspicuous holding it up to your ear for conversations. Obviously the supplied headphones or a bluetooth headset get around this, but its surprising how often I don’t have one of those with me and need to answer a call on the phone.
However, judging by the sales figures Samsung are quoting, the device is definitely finding a segment of users happy to give it a home, and the overdue ICS upgrade will make it all the more usable.
This post was written by Rob Gordon, an IT geek, gadget lover and blogger. Rob has been using the internets since 1994 when the only streaming video was that coffee pot in Cambridge (rip)….
Follow Rob on Twitter – @robgordon – about.me/robgordonuk
