Here's a look at what Unlocked Smartphones trends analysts-Priceangels.com

Samsung's latest phone, the Galaxy Mega, is the latest example of trying to stand out. The smartphone, which launches Friday on AT&T for $150, measures 6.3 inches diagonally, making it almost as big as a 7-inch tablet.Samsung says that the new Mega is meant to work as a hybrid between a phone and a tablet so that consumers don't have to buy two products. However, the size of the phone may be more of a joke to consumers instead of a practical device.
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"It's becoming a little silly," said Carolina Milanesi, a vice president of research on Gartner's consumer devices team. "It seems to me these companies are doing it just for sake of doing it."Huawei rolled out its 6.1-inch Ascend Mate Unlocked Smartphones earlier this year, so Samsung had to play catch-up to that, she said."Five inches use to be the best size and then 5 inch became the norm and so companies felt like they needed to go up, and if you do 5.5-inch screen, people are going to catch up to you very quickly. So they jumped to the 6 inches," she said.

But with the phones entering the 6-inch range, the line between phone and tablet becomes blurred. Vendors, though, argue the large size solves the problem of having to carry two different devices—a tablet and a smartphone—at the same time.And while this may be a solution for some consumers, it's really not a problem most people have.

While there is a growing number of tablet users, most of them only use their tablet at home, Milanesi said. In addition, most people still a want something they can fit in their pocket while they're on the go, which is why she said she doesn't see these extra large smartphones having mass appeal.jk5afF324

"I've always been a skeptic about very large screen smartphones," Milanesi said. "As much as you want people thinking they are getting one device with everything, it's still not quite practical. And as prices on 7-inch tablets continue to [get] lower, you will have more consumers who can afford both so they will buy both."

But there is definitely a market for the large-screen phones, said Charles Golvin, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. While the sweet spot for a smartphone size remains 4-5 inches, there's a segmented group of consumers who will prefer a bigger device, he said."Personalization is clearly a continuing trend in this space. The smartphone is the most personal device people carry with them. There is this need for consumers to standout among their peers," Golvin said.But though lauded as the architect of the Taiwanese firm's award-winning smartphones, some insiders say he is now an obstacle to any revival as the company's fortunes have dived.

Rocked by internal feuding and executive exits, and positioned at the high-end of a smartphone market that is close to saturation, HTC has seen its market share of the smartphone business slump to below 5%, from about 25% five years ago; its stock price is at eight-year lows, and it has warned it could make a first operating loss this quarter.

Reuters interviewed a dozen former and current HTC executives who said Chou's abrasive management style and weak strategic vision play their part in the company's decline, which has coincided with the success of Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy phones.If you own a smartphone, it's probably your primary camera. Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz even called the iPhone "the snapshot camera of today."Like the prevailing snapshooters of yesteryear (think of the legendary Polaroid Instant Camera or Kodak Brownie), smartphone cameras aren't built to take the best cheap cell phones — they just make it easy and convenient to take decent ones.