But you miss my point: Having too many products is what nearly killed Apple in the 'pre-second coming of Steve' era. Sure, bad management decisions also contributed, but the incredible array of nearly the same except for one small detail forced Apple to commit to massive amounts of warehouse space and filling those warehouses with those products in hopes that people would be able to decide which one to buy, and then buy them. Even building everything to order means that the components have to be ready to be assembled so the warehousing is not gone, it's just changed venues.
I think it was smart to kill off the iPhone 5 now that the 5s is about to be available. The 4s is perhaps a good 'first phone' for those that don't want the 5c, and it's bad enough that they can't seem to get a 'universal' iPhone that covers both CDMA and GSM to simplify the number of phones available, although they appear to be working on it. (The iPad would be an excellent device to make 'universal' first to see how it would work out plus it would simplify their back-end costs. Instead of six flavors of each iPad, only three)
Having two main flavors of the mini is just bizarre. Go all retina, or don't go at all. An argument could be made for keeping the mini with its current display... Make it a real 'loss leader'. Perhaps they do need to be somewhat concerned that the mini is cannibalizing the larger iPad sales...
Running a business like I did for the past 15 years was an education I am proud to have had. One thing that can kill a business, especially a tech business is dead weight of inventory. It can be a black hole that will eventually consume the business if not addressed somehow... You have to be careful offering 'variety' to a fickle buying public... Too much 'variety' starts looking like a noose.