Hewlett Packard (HP) is rumored to be eying emerging markets as the launchpad of its upcoming phablets in 2014.
The PC maker is expected to launch a few 6- to 7-inch phablets in emerging markets such as India, China and Philippines. The phablets will have a price tag in the range of $200-250. The hardware specifications of the upcoming phablets remain unknown at this juncture; however, with current crop of HP devices running on Android, it is highly likely that the rumored HP phablets will come pre-loaded with the Android operating system.
HP already has a number of tablets under the Slate brand name in the market and previously, the company also offered smartphones, but ditched them later.
Rumors of HP smartphones have been surfacing for a very long time now. In an interview with Fox Business in 2012, Meg Whitman, the CEO of HP, had acknowledged that the company will be entering the smartphone market in the near term, and added that the company is working towards the same.
"We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that would be your first computing device. We are a computing company, we have to take advantage of that form factor," Whitman said.
The company's core business of PC is declining at a rapid pace and analysts predict that tablets will outpace PC shipments in the next few years. However, phablets with 5-inch and bigger screens are also getting very popular.
