A growing number of my friends have become part of a trend. They’ve switched from iPhone to Samsung Galaxy S5 or worse, the Galaxy Note.

In other words, so-called phablets– a combination of phone and tablet– are carving out a slice of the smartphone and tablet market, and doing so in a way that Apple probably does not like. Why?

Buy One? Or, Buy Two?

MacKenzie Research indicates that Apple’s placement of the iPad between the Mac and the iPhone was right on target.

Many of us are Mac owners, who also became iPhone owners, and now we’re iPad owners, too. Apple has generated sales of three products to a single customer.

That was then and this is now and times change. Apple, as usual, is late to the phablet party, now dominated by Samsung. Why did Apple wait so long to join an obvious trend for smartphones with larger displays?

We may never know the answer, but I think it’s closer to math than many realize. Apple could sell Mac, iPhone, and iPad to a customer. Three sales. The phablet trend reduces the number sales.

Think about it. Instead of getting both an iPhone and an iPad, a larger screen iPhone would negate, or certainly reduce, the need to purchase an iPad.

Put me into that group. I love my iPhone. I love my iPad mini. Wouldn’t a 4.7-inch or 5.5-inch iPhone reduce the need to have an iPad?

After all, what is an iPad? It’s an iPhone with a much larger screen. And no phone. With a larger iPhone there is less need for an iPad.

I suspect that Apple has undergone an internal battle for a couple of years on whether a phablet was necessary in the iPhone line. Whichever executives aligned with the smaller iPhone lost.

An iPhone phablet is on the way.

Apple is smart to joint the giant smartphone party, of course, otherwise the company risked losing more customers to manufacturers that were required to differentiate their smartphones from the iPhone, and one obviously clear way to do that was with a much larger screen.

Before the sun sets on 2014, Apple will join the ranks of phablet manufacturers with two more iPhones. I just hope there’s a couple of choices beyond the current iPhone 5s size.