Smartphones got much larger. I think if it were just Apple, we'd still have tiny screens on our phones and iPads for general purpose computing at home. Thankfully there is competition and people voted for larger phones with their wallets, so now our phones are as large as we "need" them to be.
I'm sure that played a role. Personally I hate big phones, which is why I have the smallest iPhone (thankfully they keep that option, at least) and an iPad Mini. But many people around me are perfectly happy to use a big ass-phone for most of what they do. Good for them :-).
I, too, dislike big honking 5+" smartphones, and while I could see how they replace mini tablets, I don't think they can be used as general-purpose computing device in the way a tablet can.
