Google to Unveil 'Shamu'-Sized Smartphone of Its Own Later This Month

The gigantic sales of Apple's sixth generation iPhones have made it patently clear in today's mobile era that size does matter.

And now, not to be outdone, Google -- which Apple CEO Tim Cook called the company's chief adversary -- reportedly has its own phablet in the works.

The Nexus device will boast such a large screen size, according to The Wall Street Journal, that the company has code-named it "Project Shamu.' At 5.9 inches, it will be bigger than both the iPhone 6 Plus (5.5 inches) and the Samsung Galaxy Note, which clocks in at 5.7 inches.

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The device will purportedly arrive later this month -- installed with the latest version of Google's operating system, Android L.

It seems like only yesterday that such phablets were objects of ridicule by smartphone consumers and tech execs alike. Before his death, Steve Jobs famously said that "no one" would want to buy a smartphone with a larger screen. In 2011, phablets -- or phones featuring screens measuring 5 inches or larger -- comprised 1 percent of global shipments. Today, they make up 24 percent, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Though Google has traditionally lagged in the hardware department, the company is clearly employing a newly proven philosophy in its approach to future creations: the bigger, the better.

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