A smaller iPhone isn’t exactly an exploratory venture into a new market. And loud minorities don’t make a market.

Loud minorities can form a market, if they are willing to put their money where their mouth is. But too often they don’t (cf. the “brown manual diesel wagon” from the car world. Enthusiasts say they want one, but when a manufacturer puts one out, they don’t buy enough of them).

“Revealed preference”

Maybe. But as we’ve seen (https://www.imore.com/iphone/lackluster-iphone-14-plus-sales...), the Minis did outsell the non-Pro 14s. So expect Apple to react accordingly. I’d like for them to settle on set sizes. Hands aren’t evolving every year, they need to stop screwing around.

I use an iPhone 12 mini that I ordered on launch day and love it. Finally a worthy successor to the 5S/SE1.

There was such a little difference between the 13 and 14 low end models, there was really no purpose for a “14 mini”. If you want a mini phone, you could buy the 13.

Apple also doesn’t update the SE every year.

Why can does apple need a new mini every year, or even every 2 years? The 13 mini bought today will probably still do everything that 90% of customers need it to do for another 5 years. Even the SE which is 3 years old now can probably do most things for another 5 years.

Also, the 12 mini was released 6 months after the 2020 SE, and the 2020 SE was released ~4 years after the previous SE. it stands to reason that many people who wanted a smaller phone jumped on the 2020 SE, and then had no reason to buy a 12 mini.

Also, the 12 mini battery life sucked. The 13 mini is perfectly usable though.