Global mobile device market trends continue to change...

Global mobile device market trends continue to change rapidly, Tom Mainelli, IDC research director-tablets, told the Digital Entertainment World Conference Thursday. Consumers, for example, are holding on to their mobile devices for longer periods than in the past, he said. Consumers are, on average, keeping PCs for four or more years, tablets for three or more years, and smartphones two or more years, said Mainelli. However, consumers tend to keep iPads a little longer than Android tablets, he said. “If you buy a $79 Android tablet at CVS you're probably not going to keep it for four years,” he said. Consumers will likely start pushing off replacing their smartphones even longer because “we're sort of getting to a point in hardware where” small improvements in new models “really don’t drive people to buy a new phone,” he said. “Phablets” -- mobile devices that are a cross between smartphones and tablets -- were a “punch line” in Q1 2013, said Mainelli. But they were 15 percent of global smartphone shipments in Q4 2013, he said.