Apple said to be ‘leaving money on the table’ if it doesn’t release an ‘iPhablet’

“Phablet” fever has officially gripped the world. Although the oversized smartphones pioneered by Samsung (005930) may seem ridiculous to some, there’s no doubt that they’ve become extremely popular. And now AppleInsider points us to a pair of analysts who are calling upon Apple (AAPL) to follow Samsung’s lead and get into the phablet market with a new mega-sized version of its iconic iPhone. Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, for one, thinks that Apple will be “leaving money on the table” if it doesn’t release a phablet this year because “it is clear that many customers want larger screens.” Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes, meanwhile, believes that phablet sales will explode from 27 million last year to 230 million in 2015. With that sort of volume on the table, Reitzes thinks that Apple will find it impossible to resist putting out its own iPhone with a display of five inches or larger.