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Comment by placatedmayhem | Hacker News Reader

> 2) Apple not being trapped in the “if we can’t sell a billion of them then why even bother?” mindset that so many other companies get trapped in, often because they’re not bursting at the seams with cash, talent, and runway.

I feel like the iPhone mini being only two years long is a strong counterpoint to this. There's a small hope for an iPhone 15 mini, but with no 14 mini, it's a long shot. It accounted for 6% of all iPhone sales in it's first quarter, after a delayed and rocky launch.[1] There is a small but somewhat vocal minority that want smaller screens, which Linus Tech Tips' sub-channel Mac Address covered recently. [2]

[1] https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-12-mini-sales-a-disast... [2] https://youtu.be/BjhiYa0KsSM

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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.

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 outpace the non-Pro 14s. Obviously as the 14s sit on the market if they will outsell the minis. It’s just a matter of essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy of being available and the latest SKU. But the velocity was not there. 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.

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.

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