* People who have been left behind by Apple's push towards phablets

> People who have been left behind by Apple's push towards phablets

It's my impression that Apple really tried to service this market - that last model was probably the iPhone 13 mini. I assume that there just isn't enough demand for smaller phones to justify the effort to develop them.

I was honestly hoping that we'd get a small phone as the iPhone SE 4. But it seems like that's not to be. At least, if the 16e is the closest we'll get to an SE in the near term.

yup, I bought a 13 mini and was happy that Apple was one of the companies that supported this form factor. That being said, the 13 mini sales numbers speak for themselves and I understand why this kind of phone isn't released every year. I'm holding out that Apple recognizes that most of the users of the 13 mini aren't serial upgraders and will continue refreshing the segment every 5 years or so

Yeah I'm holding out that they've decided to just refresh the small form factor on a slower cadence. I also have a 13 mini, we'll see how long I can hold out.

> I'm holding out that Apple recognizes that most of the users of the 13 mini aren't serial upgraders and will continue refreshing the segment every 5 years or so

I loved my iPhone 13 mini for the 3-years it was my daily driver. But yeah, the mini line is probably dead.

Unfortunately the 12 and 13 mini were badly timed when stores closed for COVID. Actually holding one of them to use it is really what sells the smaller size, IMO.

I have my 12 mini still but it’s showing its age. Probably have to suck it up and get a big phone next upgrade.

I was curious about the SE4 since I had an SE2 and Verizon let me trade in the SE2 for the SE3 for free. Based on the rumors of what the SE4 was going to be, we did get an SE4, it was just rebranded as the 16e. The rumor was they were gonna get rid of the button and go with the more recent iPhone style and such. I wonder if they will rebrand the Apple Watch SE as an Apple Watch 10e or something along those lines.

* People who like being able to run software outside of the hardware vendor's walled garden

Interesting, although in my head I’d class that in the same way as the folding screens; iPhones that don’t have the dimensions you want, one way or another

Where do they go? Apart from random Chinese vendors like Unihertz who sell low-spec devices and you're lucky if you get one version update, the smallest Android phones I've seen are Samsung Galaxy phones, which are about the same size as an iPhone 16. Asus and Sony used to make small phones, but they've stopped in the last couple of years in favor of making phablets.

* People who like to think differently and customize their phones without relying on jailbreaking.

That tiny proportion fits nicely into conceptually anti-Apple

Not necessarily. There is some overlap, but not 100%.

So true.

A huge factor in this: 87% of US teenagers have iPhones [1] and that's not going to change anytime soon.

[1]: https://www.barrons.com/articles/apple-stock-teens-iphone-e5...

In a highly competitive environment everyone wants to show their blue upper-middleclass bubble.

I think it's sad that something kids can't control becomes such a social anxiety inducing thing forcing parents into buying something they might not be able to afford.

Luckily where I'm from we don't use the "sms app" to communicate

There are some other common types:

* People who think a phone is a boring generic device, and it doesn't make sense to prefer any particular brand or pay more than $X.

* People who are used to Android and have better things to do than migrating to another ecosystem.

In the past, the lack of proper dual-SIM iPhones was a common enough reason to prefer Android. But it's less of an issue today, as eSIMs have become mainstream.

I have an Android phone. I could afford an iPhone, I don't care about folding screens, and my laptop is a MacBook Pro. I have an Android phone (1) because a substantial fraction of what I do on my phone is browsing the web, and Android lets me run Firefox which has markedly better ad-blocking, (2) because the phone I had before this one was an Android phone (mostly for reason 1, as it happens, but that's not particularly important here) and switching is inconvenient, and (3) because one of the reasons why I could easily afford an iPhone if I wanted one is that I have always preferred not to spend money for which I don't get substantial benefit, and it doesn't look to me as if iPhones are so much better than Android phones as to be worth paying a premium for.

This may be partly because I'm not in the US; my impression is that "people who can afford iPhones buy iPhones so if you don't you're impoverished or weird" is much more a thing in the US than in Europe.)

(I also thought "struggling to obtain new market share" was a weird take, and ditto "just look like old and slow phones". I am not disagreeing with that part of what you posted.)