Apple is listening to its customers – by way of sales data rather than a few comments on a niche techy forum.

Given the continued poor sales of the mini phones, it seems like only a vocal minority wants them.

They had to cut the Mini line because it was bankrupting the company. It's not like Apple can afford to have a product that only sells a few hundred thousands units a year, are you kidding?

If a product line loses money it’s pretty logical to cut it, is that controversial or did you mistake Apple for a charity?

Price is flexible. We have no insight on Apple's finances, but how much is that line losing money by? And is it losing money at all, or is it a strategic decision?

At the scale Apple operates at, and the egregious margins on their products, I wouldn't be so sure it was a financial decision.

They are listening to their sales numbers and the numbers say that customers are, in fact, not interested in Mini.

I'm on Team Mini as well, but I can see why Apple canned it: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopula...

The SE also doesn’t do amazingly. The markup on the mini must have been way higher though. Its a shame

I'd argue the opposite! The segment is a minority, but the need within that segment is strong. It is not a 1 size fits all product, and 2-3% of your customer base might leave if a competitor fulfills that need. For your main revenue generator, that's not insignificant. See the Prego pasta sauce story https://www.enablemarketing.ie/can-business-learn-spaghetti-...

Assuming that there is a fixed cost associated with the mini production line, and assuming they sales and service based revenue from mini users isn’t a lot, it doesn’t make financial sense to have the mini line.

Also, where exactly are the users gonna go? The smallest is probably one of those Samsung foldable ones. But you’re really underestimating how bad android ecosystem can be (this is coming from someone who’s been hardcore android fan until recently). Maybe I’m getting older, but I really like the part where a lot of things with apple just work.

> Also, where exactly are the users gonna go?

Exactly. Apple can influence what their customers want to some degree, rather than listening. Just has to be better than Android, which is a low bar for Apple.

A cleaner example is Bluetooth audio vs jack. iPhones had both forever, but BT wasn't popular. One day Apple coaxed everyone onto BT, probably realizing they can make a killing selling AirPods that way. Samsung thought maybe this would send a few customers their way, so they started advertising that they still have a jack, but nope.

> The segment is a minority, but the need within that segment is strong.

The only issue I see with this argument is that it doesn't matter to Corp if a small minority really wants Thing, it only matters if selling Thing makes more money than not selling Thing.

I think the problem is that the same people who care a lot about their phone's form factor also care about features. We need an iPhone Mini Pro with high end cameras. I'm not going to settle for so-so pics of my toddler.

most manufacturers gimp their smaller phones so its not surprising that the larger versions sell more

Unfortunately, there aren't enough of us to merit it. The 12 mini was a trial balloon for how well a smaller sized phone would sell, and people didn't show up for it. On the plus side (no pun intended), it looks like the yearly increase in average phone sizes has halted.

It's worth nothing that there are practical costs for a smaller phone: You can't fit as much battery into a smaller package, but people want to use a smaller phone the same way they'd use a larger phone.

It sold a single digit percentage of total iPhones the quarter after the 12 series dropped, which is... millions of units. Not to mention the 2020 SE came out a few months prior to the 12 lineup's announcement, so a lot of people who wanted a small phone had just got one.

The idea that nobody bought it isn't true. It sold under Apple's expectations, but if they set their expectations correctly and didn't cannibalize a large portion of potential buyers a few months before announcing it, I think it could work.

The real story here is that they don't have to make them because people will buy whatever is available. When my 13 mini is getting old, I'll buy a standard size phone because it's all I can do.