You’d have to pay MORE than for a Pro Max, to fit all of that & decent battery life into a Mini form factor.
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There Is No iPhone 14 Mini: Here's Why [Updated]
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Yeah, I guess the market of those who don’t stare at their phone all day has grown quite small.
This isn’t surprising news. People who buy the Max and Plus models are rich people who think having the biggest model makes them cool. People who buy the mini wants a simple useable device while on the go. Let’s use more resources and buy a new phone every year and make sure it’s the largest one we can get since that will up our status.
Keep up the good fight man! You and the 5 or 6 other people that love that miniature screen….
Yeah, it is. I was initially impressed with the battery life and when it diminished I suspected a software update had affected it. AppleCare to the rescue!
I understand people who must work from their phones want a bigger screen. But for that, I use an IPad or (now) a MBA. The smaller, more portable mini works great for me. Will upgrade the 12 to a 13 mini in the next few months.
Also people are glossing over the other take away from this:
People seem to be more interested in buying the more expensive Pro phones. So honestly I wouldn’t doubt if Apple knows the iPhone 14 Plus won’t sell overwhelming either, it’s just another means to push customers in that price range to go all the way to Pro. If not? Well now they’re getting someone to make an $899 purchase vs a $699 one.
When put face to face with 14 Plus/14 Pro Max, what do you think they’ll choose? The one with the old chunky notch, 60hz display and 1 year old chip, or the truly NEW device with the DYNAMIC ISLAND, 120hz display and brand new A16. Also if you’re someone that already owns an iPhone 12/13 Pro, it’s probably a given that you’ll go for a 14 Pro as well. I doubt you’ll downgrade to a 14 Plus.
As stupid as it sounds, I think the Dynamic Island alone will be enough to push people since it’ll be the new noticeable thing that lets you stand out from other iPhone owners.
People seem to be more interested in buying the more expensive Pro phones. So honestly I wouldn’t doubt if Apple knows the iPhone 14 Plus won’t sell overwhelming either, it’s just another means to push customers in that price range to go all the way to Pro. If not? Well now they’re getting someone to make an $899 purchase vs a $699 one.
When put face to face with 14 Plus/14 Pro Max, what do you think they’ll choose? The one with the old chunky notch, 60hz display and 1 year old chip, or the truly NEW device with the DYNAMIC ISLAND, 120hz display and brand new A16. Also if you’re someone that already owns an iPhone 12/13 Pro, it’s probably a given that you’ll go for a 14 Pro as well. I doubt you’ll downgrade to a 14 Plus.
As stupid as it sounds, I think the Dynamic Island alone will be enough to push people since it’ll be the new noticeable thing that lets you stand out from other iPhone owners.
Well yeah, they “could” go that route and just discontinue the 13 mini instead of selling it for $499.
Why though? It’s just as easy to imagine that producing an OLED with the notch will be cost effective enough to sell at $499, with three year old camera tech (or even four year with the 12mini tech). Or even better: touchID in the power button… that’s gotta be cheap.
Get the 13 mini. Trust everyone and get the 13mini: it’s leaps and bounds better than the 12 mini.
Apple must have optimized something with the battery longevity and/or MagSafe charging in the 13 series because at this stage in its life my iPhone 12 had far worse battery life.
Glad you can get it taken care of. Hopefully the new battery will last.
Once I moved away from my iPhone 5S, I always imagined I’d want to go back to something smaller. I then had the XS and now the iPhone 13 Pro. I’m not sure I would have “downsized” even if they had offered a pro version of the mini because I just got used to the larger sized phone.
True. Compact might have worked, but not fit with Apple naming. Mini certainly fit, but only ON PAPER with iPad mini naming scheme.
For whatever reason iPhone mini just doesn’t work. Maybe because iPhones are SUPPOSED to be compact and portable already.
They really walked themselves into a naming corner calling the 6.1” the iPhone 11, because then it would be weird to call the mini the “iPhone 12” (which they should have done and called the iPhone 12 the iPhone 12 Plus).
So then what? They have to call the smaller 12 something… you can imagine the quick meeting they had over what to call it: “hmmmm… we have iPad mini. Yes! There we go. iPhone mini. Okay, now let’s talk about the important stuff we actually care about: iPhone 12 Pro.”
iPhone 13C (for compact) would have worked. iPhone 13s (for small) would have worked. Wait!!! Why didn’t they name it iPhone 13M (for mini)???!!!!! Ahhh Apple… you failed. iPhone 13(m) would have been better than (mini).
Oh well. RIP mini.
Exxxxxxxxactly.
The 14plus at $899 only exists to get people to buy the pro instead at $999. And if you’re already at the $999 in your head, what’s another $100 for the Pro Max. Besides, you already want a Plus size phone anyways, right?
Boom. Apple gets a Pro Max sale. EeeeeeeeeZ.
You’re definitely not the only person I’ve read that has had battery problems in the 12 line. It’s either that Qualcomm chip or Apple sourced some seriously gimped batteries during the shutdowns in 2020.
Glad to hear that. I’m impressed by the form factor of the Samsung Flip, but the tech needs more development. The hinge seems quite vulnerable to dust, dirt and mechanical damage. Hope Apple figures it out by the time my (still to be bought) 13 mini gets long in the tooth.
This will be a totally different iPhone then, so extra R&D costs. The rumours of this kind came out earlier (a 5.7” iPhone with a Touch ID in the power button), yet it would require too much work for a cheap SE “reused” category. I would personally love any new sub-6” iPhone, yet it still goes against the SE philosophy until now.
Apple really should do a better job of differentiating iPhone models and defining their respective target audiences... align the SE and Mini models, have a 'big phone' event in ~Sept and a 'budget / small phone' event in ~March. The 'Mini' was always going to be overshadowed by the larger / flagship phones during the ~September event.
If they assumed anything, maybe it was that people wanting the Pro features wouldn’t want the smaller size, rather than the other way around. And maybe, their ‘test’ of the standard iPhone crowd was enough to warrant them discontinuing the mini, at least beyond the 13. They’ll probably keep the 13 mini on sale for a couple years anyway.
There was no market for a mini variant of the Pro. It’s that simple.
Inasmuch as there’s any kind of ‘market’ for anything, I think we can safely assume that Apple goes to great lengths to establish what that market is in order to make decisions about its product lineup. Don’t squander your profanities getting all wound up about Apple and its financial decisions. They’re doing fine.
I love the form factor of my 13 mini however the battery life just isn’t there. 1 Year in and I hit battery life issues whenever we travel. Last weekend I did two 1 hour navigations while being out for the day for 5-6 hours and it was pretty much dead at the end of it. Also the camera leaves a bit to be desired if you are coming from a pro-device. I’m returning to the regular size with the 14 pro this year. The size is perfect but there are compromises. The mini was so nice in the pocket with the wallet attachment.
Have you been running the 16 betas on your mini or are you waiting until it publicly releases on Monday?
Also, what’s your mini reading as far as battery health goes?
I hope the mini size returns on a 2-3 year refresh cycle and retains aspects of the larger models (cpu/ram etc).
It is a wonderful size and I can’t imagine wanting anything bigger as my mobile device (I went from iPhone 4 -> 5 -> 6+ -> XS Max -> Samsung S21 -> 13 mini). When I pick up my wife’s 13 Pro Max it feels unwieldy and unusable.
3% of sales sounds tiny as a percentage, but is 6m a year if we assume 50m quarterly units overall.
For many manufacturers I bet that number would be a huge success.
I get the comments that the market for a mini device might not be there. I would counter that by saying that there isn’t a market for people like me if all that exists is bigger phones.
It is a wonderful size and I can’t imagine wanting anything bigger as my mobile device (I went from iPhone 4 -> 5 -> 6+ -> XS Max -> Samsung S21 -> 13 mini). When I pick up my wife’s 13 Pro Max it feels unwieldy and unusable.
3% of sales sounds tiny as a percentage, but is 6m a year if we assume 50m quarterly units overall.
For many manufacturers I bet that number would be a huge success.
I get the comments that the market for a mini device might not be there. I would counter that by saying that there isn’t a market for people like me if all that exists is bigger phones.
there needs to be a mini, I mean come on apple. Other manufacturers would have killed for those sales.
