zlacker

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+(OP)
The point is that 5% (or 10m phones) does not make sense for Apple to continue to build, but that has no relation to whether it's worth it to another company.

>>DANK_Y+(OP)
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.

>>DANK_Y+(OP)
If the iPhone mini is managing to capture all of the "I want a small flagship phone" market, it's worth it. As long as the Mini exists, it's impossible for other manufacturers to try and compete.

>>ncalla+t1
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.

>>ncalla+t1
I switched to Apple after 10 years of using Android. Wanted to have a good and small phone, which the 12 mini is.

Was a hard decision, because my Android was rooted with LineageOS, was able to block ads and all kinds of nice things.

But ultimately, it just pissed me off too much to carry around a bulky phone (Fairphone 3).

Fairly happy with the 12 mini, just don't like the Apple ecosystem that much.

>>DANK_Y+(OP)
Your argument suggests that there are actually 2 smart phone markets. One for iPhones, one for everything else. I think this is a fairly reasonable assumption for the majority of consumers.

Let's assume very few people are switching ecosystems at this point based on form factor. That would mean Apple made a new product to cannibalize 5% of their existing market. No similar product exists in the android ecosystem. It seems reasonable that an android phone maker could get similar market share but have these sales come from a combination of their existing sales and competitors sales.

>>DANK_Y+K3
That's why I picked up an iPhone 13 Mini. It's a really great phone and when I need a new phone six years from now, I'm hoping there's something as good to replace it.

>>ncalla+t1
Is there a world where the iPhone mini is necessary or desirable when the iPhone SE also exists? I don't see a need for both, especially when they run the same processor under the hood.

>>brewda+68
Optics on the 13 mini are significantly better!

>>brewda+68
Doesn't the SE have an significantly worse & smaller screen (not to mention camera), although it's a slightly larger package?

SE is clearly a 'budget' (at least for apple) phone. Some people really want a small phone that isn't.

>>brewda+68
The mini is a flagship phone with flagship specs and better design.

The newest SE is substantially larger and worse.

I love my mini, but it’s also clear this is the last one.

>>DANK_Y+K3
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.

>>vville+F1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagship

There is no such thing as a small flagship.

>>brewda+68
The current SE is bigger than the mini.

>>auggie+cm
If we're talking about actual ships, USS Constitution is tiny compared to most US Navy ships ;)

(Not sure how good this example is, but anyway - flagship doesn't have to be physically giant.)

>>brewda+68
I use an iPhone SE 2016, which uses the same chassis as the iPhone 5/5s.

I tried an iPhone 6S for a year before I got this phone. Couldn't stand the size. The current SE is the same size as the 6S. I'm basically stuck at a dead-end of phone size.

The current SE is not compact by historical standards. I'm not saying all phones need to be smaller, I just want one decent option.

>>brewda+68
The iPhone SE is a full-sized phone. It just happens to be obsolete in the marketplace, and the other full-sized phones it competes against have become even fuller sized.

>>auggie+cm
It would probably be useful to read the whole article that one links to, because there's no flagship small enough to fit in your pocket, unless...:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagship#Flagship_as_metaphor

Now, whether an iPhone Mini fits into that metaphor can be debated, but it's just a metaphor, after all. :-)

>>DANK_Y+(OP)
I know more than a few people who got Iphones only because there were no or too hard to find Android phones in a smaller form factor. I wouldn't be surprised if at least half of that 5% would switch back in the no-mini scenario