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Kuo: Next Year's iPhone Lineup Won't Include a Mini Model

Michael Scrip said:
Exactly.

And when you offer three different sizes of phones across four models... not all of them can be a hit.

It was never gonna be 25%, 25%, 25%, 25% equally for the 12 Mini, 12, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max.

While I personally don't want a Mini... I know there are some people who do. Not a big percentage... but they are there. Apple could sell 10 million or 15 million Minis per year out of the 200 million they sell.

Is that enough to keep the Mini around? I dunno.

I guess Apple thinks that if they don't offer a Mini... people will get the regular iPhone 12 instead.

What are they gonna do... get an absurdly large phone from one of the Android manufacturers?

:p
Click to expand...

My answer would be not buying a new phone and keeping my old one. Judging by other comments plenty of people share the sentiment ... so Apple would lose millions of sales by not keeping the Mini around. I can't imagine it not being economically advantageous for Apple given it's the 8th best selling phone worldwide.
 
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Michael Scrip said:
Does anyone make a smartphone that is a similar size to the iPhone 12 Mini?

Seems like Android phones have been at least 6" for a while now. Flagships and budget models.

You may be outta luck... an old fashioned flip-phone might be in your future...

:p
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Just like how it's over for under 6' manlets, it never began for under 6" phonelets, or dicklets, for that matter
 
I LOVE my mini. I actually started off by trading in my 11 Pro for a 12 Pro in October. My work decided to upgrade all of our devices from our old 7 Plus models and we were given two choices, the XR or the 12 Mini. I took the 12 mini since it was the newest of the devices. I didn't realize how much I would like the form factor so I went ahead and gave my 12 Pro to my wife and ordered another 12 Mini for my personal line.

I can truly say that I will buy these as long as I can. The 11 Pro was a fine form factor and as big as I want to go in a device. Personally the new devices are just too big.
 
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I love small, pocketable phones, but for my next phone, I will not be compromising on the camera.

I've finally committed to the idea that I'm not going to be buying a DSLR or any other dedicated camera any time soon, and I want the camera I have – the one I carry with me everywhere – to be as good as it can be.

I'll be getting the smaller "Pro" model of whatever is current when my OG SE is ready for an upgrade. It's 4 years old now, and probably at the end of its OS support, so that upgrade might be happening this year.

Now, if they packed the Pro camera and decent battery life into an even smaller device, I'd be sold on that. I really don't like huge phones.
 
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I’m enjoying my Mini and not at all concerned about these rumors. Remember when they predicted there would be no more iPad Mini's? That didn’t happen either but rather they went to producing them every so many years apart rather than yearly. It seems to me if the Mini is the 8th best selling phone that should be enough to keep them in the lineup, even if upgrades are slower and they don’t rank number 1. Besides iPhones last for years and with marginal upgrades every year we don’t really need to upgrade as often. I am planning to keep my Mini at least 3 years anyway...Just my .02 cents.
 
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satchmo said:
When an SE is $300 less than an iPhone 12 mini, the price gap is too big.

If the iPhone 12 mini were $100-150 less, it would be the default mid-range iPhone.
Instead, it’s perceived as the overpriced iPhone 12 model.
Click to expand...

Well, I think a lot of people need to stop seeing the iPhone mini as a "should be low-budget-phone". In reality, it's a fully fledged iPhone 12, but in a smaller body.
 
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There is additional costs in having the mini in the lineup if the sales don't justify it, not one source let alone Apple has put any confidence in the mini sticking around.

The iPad mini is a whole separate conversation, it doesn't even get updated that often.
 
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Prince Akeem said:
Well, I think a lot of people need to stop seeing the iPhone mini as a "should be low-budget-phone". In reality, it's a fully fledged iPhone 12, but in a smaller body.
Click to expand...

I agree with you that the Mini is currently positioned that way. Whether that is sensible or not is an entirely different conversation though.
 
Prince Akeem said:
Well, I think a lot of people need to stop seeing the iPhone mini as a "should be low-budget-phone". In reality, it's a fully fledged iPhone 12, but in a smaller body.
Click to expand...

Sure, but it doesn't help that perception when Apple prices the 12 mini $100 cheaper. It's kind of in no-man's land.

But it's too close in price to the regular iPhone 12, but a lot more expensive than the SE.
 
eatrains said:
Can you use the iPhone 12 with one hand?
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Agreed. I debated between iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone Mini and bought both. The iPhone 12 can be used single handed but for me required gyrations, odd games of holding the phone precariously to be able to stretch my thumb to far corner of the screen. Its doable but barely and not pleasant. With the Mini is fairly easy, but can still be a stretch. 5.8 inch screen on the Mini is still really quite large.
6.7" screen is definitely two hander.
 
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Ladybug said:
I’m enjoying my Mini and not at all concerned about these rumors. Remember when they predicted there would be no more iPad Mini's?
Click to expand...
Likely the same that said they'll never sell new 4-inch screen iOS devices in 2021. Yet... they do.

I'd be absolutely bummed if they never made a "small" phone again. But I'm not concerned.

It's not like I needed a new phone every year. I'd be absolutely fine with a two- or even three-year release cycle, if they just don't make it look too outdated in camera, battery life or looks (looking at you, iPhone SE 2020).
 
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satchmo said:
When an SE is $300 less than an iPhone 12 mini, the price gap is too big.

If the iPhone 12 mini were $100-150 less, it would be the default mid-range iPhone.
Instead, it’s perceived as the overpriced iPhone 12 model.
Click to expand...

It's part of it, where Pegatron is getting dwindling orders of the mini versus Foxconn getting a large increase in Pros says a lot.

It's not like they designed these phones in 2020 either, they were working on these pre-pandemic, combined with an eastern asian shift to larger phones from Apple or Huawei, and you now got a changing demographic where the mini is the fall phone. If you had to drop one iPhone from the line-up, its certainly not going to be one of the Pros, nor the standard.
 
Scovious said:
Apple just lost my business, no more iPhones for me. I was quite happy with their Apple Watch, it brought me back from Android, but after this news... my only options are screen sizes at minimum of 6 inches? Thats insane.

I don’t want 5 cameras on my phone, I dont want a heavy mini tablet in my pocket, I only care about compactness and battery life. Goodbye Apple, it’s a shame you cant see the vision in your own products and just abandon them after a year of bad sales.

Maybe one day they will release an Apple Watch that can actually make phone calls or texts without a jumbo iPhone requirement because iMessage doesn’t cut it.
Click to expand...
Taking Kuo as having spoken for Apple is wrong. I wouldn't say goodbye, Apple, yet. At least wait until facts are presented.
 
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satchmo said:
Sure, but it doesn't help that perception when Apple prices the 12 mini $100 cheaper. It's kind of in no-man's land.

But it's too close in price to the regular iPhone 12, but a lot more expensive than the SE.
Click to expand...
Well, the 12 Pro Max is $100 more than the 12 Pro. So $100 seems to be the difference between the size options.
 
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Scovious said:
Apple just lost my business, no more iPhones for me. I was quite happy with their Apple Watch, it brought me back from Android, but after this news... my only options are screen sizes at minimum of 6 inches? Thats insane.

I don’t want 5 cameras on my phone, I dont want a heavy mini tablet in my pocket, I only care about compactness and battery life. Goodbye Apple, it’s a shame you cant see the vision in your own products and just abandon them after a year of bad sales.

Maybe one day they will release an Apple Watch that can actually make phone calls or texts without a jumbo iPhone requirement because iMessage doesn’t cut it.
Click to expand...
But it is almost impossible to find a good Android phone less than 6.1 inches. I like my Galaxy S10e at 5.8 inches but it is no longer being made. I wouldn't know what to get tomorrow if I needed to replace it.
 
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Expos of 1969 said:
But it is almost impossible to find a good Android phone less than 6.1 inches. I like my Galaxy S10e at 5.8 inches but it is no longer being made. I wouldn't know what to get tomorrow if I needed to replace it.
Click to expand...
Pixel 4a is 5.8 inches. Fantastic phone.
 
It would be a shame if the Mini was discontinued. My hands are in the awkward middle size where they are not so small that size doesn't matter because you need both hands to use your device one way or another (my wife), nor are they big enough to use a regular iPhone 12 comfortably with one hand.
 
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d686546s said:
It would be a shame if the Mini was discontinued. My hands are in the awkward middle size where they are not so small that size doesn't matter because you need both hands to use your device one way or another (my wife), nor are they big enough to use a regular iPhone 12 comfortably with one hand.
Click to expand...
With the mini, I still have to use the Reachability feature (via tapback method) to use the phone one-handed at times. It works great. Have you tried that?
 
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