Asia’s hottest tech trends of 2014: The gadget scene

This post is part of our series that looks at the tech gadgetry and geeky moments that went truly viral in Asia in 2014. Check out google.com/2014 for lists of the most popular searches around the world. Enjoy!

It was a big year for Chinese handset maker Xiaomi, as searches for their devices—the Redmi, Xiaomi 3, and phablet Redmi Note—all spilled over to various parts of Asia, especially in nearby Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia. In Taiwan and Malaysia, searches for Xiaomi trended just behind searches for iPhone 6.

Searches for Xiaomi were most concentrated in Greater China and nearby Asian countries

2014 was also the year that the phablet hit the mainstream. We had noticed how Asians were touting 5” beasts way back in 2011 (the Samsung Note anyone?), and people in the West were laughing at the sheer size of them. Now, phablets have gotten the ultimate stamp of smartphone approval as Apple wholeheartedly embraced the larger screen size with their flagship phones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus.

We have some theories as to why the phablet first emerged in Asia: some believe that phablets took off here because the larger surface area made writing Asian-language characters with a finger or a stylus easier. For hyperconnected countries like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, where commuters on the train can stay connected to fast Internet during their entire ride, they can stream video content via YouTube or other video players onto their phones. (Already, the bulk of YouTube views from Japan and Korea come from mobile.) Of course they’d want a bigger screen size to catch up on their favorite Korean dramas. Eventually, the rest of the world caught on to the glories of the huge phablet screen.

As this chart from Flurry Analytics shows, Koreans were way ahead of the curve, with more bigger size smartphones in that market than in the rest of the world. 

Everyone else eventually caught up, as the share of Phablets (5 - 6.9” screen) phones grew dramatically over the course of a year.

Faithful readers: do you think phablets are fab, or do you think they’re clunky monsters? Does the larger form factor cramp or expand your style? Share your thoughts with us below.

Posted by Joyce Hau, Communications Senior Associate, Google Asia Pacific