For me they have been a commodity for quite a while. My main concern is size, it's become rather difficult to find reasonably spec-ed "smaller" phones. Many are advertised as small phones but really aren't (HTC does this over and over). Samsung's Galaxy Mini is getting bigger and bigger with each release. I've never been an iPhone user but before they released their big phones I always saw their small iPhone, their flagship phone no less, as a shining light of reason in a field full of crazy-sized phablets.

I don't mind the phablets, what bothers me is that they're forgetting that some people want a phone that they can use with just one hand. Apparently there aren't that many consumers committed to buying only those kind of phones.