zlacker

>>erohea+(OP)
“matching size and design of iPhone 13 Mini”

So, by all accounts, the iPhone mini has been an extremely slow seller.

https://www.macrumors.com/2022/04/21/iphone-13-mini-unpopula...

Why would that form factor succeed in the Android space?

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I see these meme on tech sites all the time: “oh phones are too big I just want something simple”. That is a valid sentiment that I think is shared by basically no average consumer. For a lot of people, phones are their primary computing devices, so a big screen is nice there. Bigger phones allow for more battery capacity. Aging populations like them because you can use screen zoom features to really blow up that text size without making the effective viewport too small.

And…people just like big stuff. I know that’s simplistic and a little condescending, but then look at SUV and truck sales.

>>perard+n3
I touch on this on the site. 5% of iPhones sold are minis. That's 10m sold per year! That is more than enough demand to cover the NREs and costs of making a phone.

* https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/21/cirp-iphone-13-best-selling-l...

>>erohea+Q4
5% seems quite small and not worth the trouble. It might be worth it if a small phone generated 5% in additional sales, but most people buying a small iPhone would likely buy a normal-sized iPhone if no small version was available rather than making the switch to Android.

>>DANK_Y+x8
5% of 100 phones is 5 phones.

5% of 200,000,000 is 10,000,000.

5% can be a huge number, or a tiny number, depending on what it's 5% of.

I switched from Android to Apple specifically for the iPhone mini, and if they killed it, I would switch to the smallest phone on the market.

>>ncalla+0a
My point is that 5% is probably an irrelevant number because it’s not 5% additional sales. If the mini wasn’t available, many people would get a normal iPhone instead of switch to Android. So the net sales is closer to 0. Apple seems to agree with this sentiment and there will be no mini starting with the iPhone 14: https://9to5mac.com/2022/03/14/exclusive-iphone-14-coming-in...

Good luck with your switch.

>>DANK_Y+hc
Phone sales aren’t driven by switching, and haven’t been for a while, they’re about upgrading. Apple knows this better than anyone.

For example: I upgrade my phone every two years or so, so long as I like the new phones. If I don’t like the new phones, I wait as long as possible.

People that like smaller phones won’t necessarily leave the iPhone if they kill the Mini - they will just keep their current phones for as long as possible. And that can indeed hurt sales, even if Apple doesn’t lose market share.