Past sales are only evidence of how Apple positioned the Plus, not proof that the concept itself was doomed. The Plus was hobbled from day one: no ProMotion, slower chips, weaker cameras. Those omissions weren’t market accidents, they were deliberate product decisions. If you handicap a horse and then point to its losing streak as proof it should be put down, you’re ignoring who tied the weights to its legs.
This year’s cancellation can’t be explained by “it sold badly for three years,” because the sales were engineered to be weak. Apple knew the Plus would underperform precisely because they never let it compete head-to-head with the Pro. The kill isn’t a reaction to sales, it’s the conclusion of a strategy: keep it around just long enough to funnel buyers upward, then retire it before it becomes unavoidable to give it the very upgrades that would threaten the Pro.
So when someone cites past sales as justification, they’re mistaking symptom for cause. The Plus didn’t die because people didn’t want a big, cheaper iPhone. It died because Apple never allowed it to be the phone people actually wanted.
