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iPhone 12 Mini Faces Production Cut Due to 'Far Lower' Demand Than Expected

MacMartyr said:
They should cut the price next.
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With Apple breaking revenue records and the more expensive models are selling like hotcakes, Apple is unlikely to cut any prices anytime soon.

Next will be base iPad price increase to $499, and newly redesigned Apple silicon Macs having higher starting price than the intel models they replaced. It's harvesting season for Apple... 😅
 
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I'm confident this thing sells like hotcakes when compared to other phones from the competition.
It's just not good enough for Apple when they can't make billions from it...

As a relatively big man, I can finally have a phone that feels right in my hands and pockets. Hopefully they won't discontinue the small size iPhones. Another option is to reduce the price slightly if possible, or introduce a mini Pro.
 
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ian87w said:
Next will be base iPad price increase to $499,
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The base iPad is strategically important for Apple especially with respect to the education market. If I raises the price from $329 to $499 that will be problematic for Apple in a very important & competitive market.
 
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I got the iPhone 11 Pro in 2019 and I had a rough autumn of 2020, financially speaking, so I didn't get a 12 Mini even though I really want a smaller phone. My first iPhone was a 5S and I loved the size. I know most people like larger phones, but there is still a good number of us who don't. I'm hoping a small phone sticks around for when I'm ready to upgrade and I don't particularly care if it has a premium price tag as long as I can afford it.
 
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ian87w said:
Why? I thought you guys want a mini flagship. :D But seems like people just want a cheap iPhone, which what the 11 and SE are for.
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No one is saying it wouldn’t be a flagship iPhone still. For all we know, a price drop could totally be in the cards come 12s/13 later this year. If you recall, the 6.1” iPhone 11 sold for $699. If the mini had launched alongside it, it would have been $599.

Of course with the iPhone 12, consumers gained the OLED display, something which was exclusive only to the pro lineup for the past three years, as well as a redesign, so we also got a price hike back up to $799. Now after four consecutive years of OLED manufacturing maturation in iPhones as well as a year in with the new design, it’s quite likely the non-pro iPhones could see yet another potential price drop in the $50-$100 range in the next lineup.
 
apparatchik said:
I'll buy myself a 13 or 12S Mini when it comes out, may be there are less of us than expected or we're just a vocal minority of bitter bastards, but to me the Mini size is a god send. I'm 6 feet, big hands, etc. But to me phones just have to be simple, one hand devices. You can get an iPad for the other use cases, I dont know. Its just so great to handle a phone like its supposed to, and for it to be not a fat and large shiny brick.
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I like my shiny 12 pro max brick. And can’t wait to get my 12S pro max/13 pro max brick in 6 months 😂
 
Perhaps it was my monthly emails to Tim Cook that skewed their perception of demand. In any case I'm sure they see customer satisfaction of this product as overwhelmingly positive.

I'd still hope that Apple sees this as an important product going forward, even if it doesn't get massive sales or frequent updates. The iPad mini springs to mind as an equivalent.

Yes I love my iPhone mini.
 
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smulji said:
The base iPad is strategically important for Apple especially with respect to the education market. If I raises the price from $329 to $499 that will be problematic for Apple in a very important & competitive market.
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They can just keep the price tag for the education market.

It’s really weird because what the students really want is the iPad Pro 12.9. Go to any university and look in STEM classes, you can pretty much see two type of devices, Surface Pro/Book and iPad Pro 12.9.

That basic iPad is for underfunded public k-12 schools.
 
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Apple sabotaged the Mini by also making it less feature rich. I would have gladly bought a Mini sized phone that 25% thicker, had the Pro’s camera module, and a bigger battery. But because they are so focused on “it has to be insanely thin” they completely missed the boat with the phone.
 
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smulji said:
I say it shouldn’t cost more than $599
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The mini is not and was not meant to be a budget phone. That’s what SE is for. In fact it’s specs are identical to the standard 12 besides size. It has (costly) features the previous Gen doesn’t have like oled screens at the highest ppi Apple’s put in a product.

It’s targeted at people (like me) who want a higher end iPhone at a smaller size. Low demand just means small phones aren’t popular.

mtneer said:
I’ve heard the mini’s battery struggles to get through a whole day - when brand new. After a year or two usage : it will be useless. I wish Apple had tried this after battery technology had ramped up quite a bit more.
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I rarely get mine to drop below 50% despite heavy use. (Web, video, music, etc) I expect anyone struggling to get through the day with it must do heavy gaming. (I don’t)
 
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I keep thinking about upgrading to a 256GB Mini, but as much as prefer a small phone that's $880 for a phone with below average battery life. For $700-$750 I think I would have bought it by now.
 
MacRumors said:


Apple is cutting orders for all iPhones by around 20% compared to its plans in December, with the iPhone 12 mini making up the majority of the cutback, according to Nikkei Asia. In line with previous reports, the publication claims that demand for the iPhone 12 mini has been "far lower than Apple initially expected."

iphone-12-mini-pro-max-side-by-side.jpg

The report claims that Apple initially aimed to secure components for up to 96 million iPhones for the first half of 2021, including the entire iPhone 12 lineup and older models like the iPhone 11 and the iPhone SE, but the company is apparently now targeting production of around 75 million units during that period. That is still slightly higher than iPhone shipments in the same period last year, the report adds.

iPhone 12 mini demand has been so lackluster that Apple even asked some suppliers to temporarily stop building components specifically for the 5.4-inch device, according to Nikkei Asia. Some of the components and parts for the iPhone 12 mini have been reallocated to the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, a source told the publication.

Apple is still believed to be seeing healthy demand for its three higher-end iPhone 12 models, with strong sales of the devices helping to contribute to Apple's record-breaking $111.4 billion revenue reported in the December quarter.

While demand for the iPhone 12 mini may be lower than Apple initially expected, the company is still expected to release a so-called iPhone 13 mini this year.

Article Link: iPhone 12 Mini Faces Production Cut Due to 'Far Lower' Demand Than Expected
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I don’t ever expect them to, but Apple needs to stop putting inferior components to their mini offering. Simple as that.

I love the mini but was put off my the inferior camera and battery (although the battery I get).
 
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iZac said:
Perhaps it was my monthly emails to Tim Cook that skewed their perception of demand. In any case I'm sure they see customer satisfaction of this product as overwhelmingly positive.

I'd still hope that Apple sees this as an important product going forward, even if it doesn't get massive sales or frequent updates. The iPad mini springs to mind as an equivalent.

Yes I love my iPhone mini.
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The iPhone mini feels like a setup for the next gen SE for, again, the purpose of upping the ASP of the SE models. I'm guessing the next round of SE updates, the baseline will be the mini size, so majority of people would opt for a more expensive plus version. Apple loves making you spend more money than what you originally planned. 😅
 
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