There Is No iPhone 15 Mini: Here's Why

[Skyscraperfan]

That's the problem I have with most Apple products. They do not give you a lot of choices. Dell for example has a lot more different notebooks than Apple and many of them are still upgradable later. And that is just one manufacturer of Windows or Linux notebooks. If you prefer MacOS, you you can just choose between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro in two sizes each (plus the old 13 inch MacBook Pro). There is not even a 17 inch option from Apple.

Many people do not want to have the same phone as 40 million other people. It reminds me very much of those nightmarish suburbs of some cities in the US, where dozens or hundreds of homes look more or less the same. Nobody there is even allowed to have a different roof colour. It seems people in the US do not have as much of a problem with that as people elsewhere.

 

[Lakersfan74]

A mini pro would have to have all the features of the 6.1 at the minimum to be a real pro model or else it’s not. Battery life would probably be worse unless they make the phone extra thick.
A cheaper model with a notch, single camera system and 128 storage only is probably their best bet.

 

[klasma]

Cook is a limp dishrag whose show of guts was to introduce the butterfly keyboard and touch bar. Huge costlt failures which were not asked for by customers.

Well, arguably he has guts for believing in the Vision Pro. We’ll see if it ends up selling better than the iPhone mini.

 

[Expos of 1969]

Well, arguably he has guts for believing in the Vision Pro. We’ll see if it ends up selling better than the iPhone mini.

Lets see if he retires before the verdict is in. If it is looking bad we may see a departure with the usual BS "He is leaving his post to spend more time with his family"

 

[neo_cs193p]

I want my Mini back. Big phones are less than great.

 

[ikramerica]

In all fairness, when we debate such outcomes, it is incredibly important to understand Apple's involvement in this. While Apple did what 'we wished for', it didn't nurture the mini line up at all. From covers to promotion to price, it was never what it was meant to be. Covers were hard to find by Apple, they didn't promote it well enough and they didn't give the mini a chance to exist in the lineup. Look at the iPhone 13 era and the line up Apple had, it was a mess. Today it's evident that if you want the VERY best and up to date upgrades it's the Pro MAX. Others fall short of basic things from USB C speeds to some features. So here's the issue, Apple never wanted to have the Mini succeed, because that meant too many screen investments and productions would differ from each model. That's costing more than they wanted in vest in. The Mini should have been the SE line. They needed to keep a flagship model to perform well, but you make that happen only when the options are fewer in the line up. MOST people would buy a cheaper iPhone, the SE shouldn't exist anymore, it makes no sense, and in stead it should just be called the Mini Line up keeping the form factor and that's that. But it's a fine balance at Apple to control price, income, prestige and absolute control over their market. The mini wasn't a priority... and when Apple didn't care about it, it was hard to keep it going despite the 12 mini selling so well when launched. Numbers internally showed a very different performance. So it's not that it wasn't popular, it was that it had the potential to become more popular than their pro max models and that wouldn't look good for Apple...

And Apple has upgraded iOS multiple times without taking the mini form factor into consideration and it seems like the mini is too small to work right. That was my feeling when I had the mini 13 and returned it in favor of a 12pro.

 

[jlc1978]

For a company with its finger on the pulse in so many ways, the glaring error they made with the mini is pretty unforgivable.

Not really, because it is a positioning issue wrt price. At what price point could it be sold? It would have to to be more than the 15 Plus, but the 15 Pro is already there. Slotting between the two would risk canabalizing the 15 Pro, so the logical price would be the same as the 15 Pro. No you have 2 models at the same price point, meaning you sell less of each, raising unit costs.

It needed a pro offering, or at least a telephoto lens in the camera stack. The 0.5x lens is worthless to most people and the 1.0x is O.K. - now they’ve released the iPhone 15 with a 2x telephoto, which is _exactly_ what the mini needed.

If they did that, people would complain the "Mini Pro" was hobbled; especially if it sold at the same price point as a 15 Pro.

I’m a long time upgrader and iPhone only photographer, and despite my frustrations at having been pushed out of the pro camera range, I don’t see myself moving on from the 13 mini for a long time because of Apple’s obsession with the idea that someone who wants a smaller device can’t possibly be interested in pro features. It’s maddening.

I suspect it's a niche market that is not worth the investment.

 

[Shirasaki]

Well, fragmented consumer base, too much variation of the feature set customer is asking for, plus overall weak demand, kills the mini line for good. On one hand, Apple didn’t really give mini a proper time to shine. On the other hand, customer doesn’t vote mini with their wallet hard enough either. The demise really goes both ways, and to me, the market has spoken for themselves: large phone.
Just a side note, Asian people don’t treat jeans picket that sacred compared to US customers. They don’t even care the added screen size and weight.

 

[Fuzzball84]

When I was at an airport a few years ago the guy infant of me dropped his huge iPhone a few times because he only had one hand spare to bring up his ticket on screen while carrying bags. This is one of the reasons I love my mini iPhone.. I can put it in any of my pockets and work it effortlessly with one hand.

 

[Sebalto]

i have the 12 mini and looks like normal size, the 15 pro looks big, and the max its abnormally larger, what hands do you have guys? lol the mini is being treated as very small when in reality is normal size, as smartphones should be honestly...

Smartphones are now little more than media consumption devices. The consensus appears to be the larger screen the better.

 

[Fuzzball84]

Smartphones are now little more than media consumption devices. The consensus appears to be the larger screen the better.

Smartphones are first and foremost communication devices... media consumption is a secondary role.. but in a way the larger screens do benefit communication role (email, video calls etc). Eventually the phones will decrease in size again... possibly with folding phones, but more likely due to increase in the use of glasses with built in screens. Who would watch a movie on a smartphone if you have essential a cinema sized screen using your glasses.

 

[klasma]

And Apple has upgraded iOS multiple times without taking the mini form factor into consideration and it seems like the mini is too small to work right. That was my feeling when I had the mini 13 and returned it in favor of a 12pro.

The mini has the same logical resolution as the iPhone X/XS/11 Pro. It’s a resolution that would/should still be supported even if the mini didn’t exist.

 

[Powerbooky]

Honestly, reading this article... I don't see any "why". I see again analysts guessing wildly and some complain that they got it wrong. Apple makes their choices and it never will fit anyone. Not the users and certainly not gamblers at the stock market. I miss the days of the keynotes when there was no over the top speculation by Youtubers in the weeks before.

Personally I'm hoping for an 16 mini or 17 mini, I have the time to wait.

I just wish they'd sort the screens out. I've owned every SE model, and recently bought the SE3 for a second time, returning the 13 mini simply due to the screen. I'd happily get a more up to date iPhone if the screens were as easy on the eyes as the SE models have been.

Really? This is more an OLED versus LCD thing. There's an option in iOS to lower the contrast a bit to make an OLED look more like an LCD. Personally I find the OLED on the 13 mini very good, but when inside home or office I turn the brightness below 50%. My wife lowers the contrast even more by setting the white point lower for reading on her 13 Pro.

 

[imdog]

Even the iPhone 12/13 mini is nowhere near mini enough.

 

[Lioness~]

The size of a 4 is better - a phone without its bezels, perfect.

 

[Chidoro]

Since the initial launch of the Plus, the sales have gone up quite respectably. Just the opposite of the mini’s demand curve.

 

[rluciano]

I would keep my iPhone 13 mini for 5 years if it just had a 2x telephoto as one of the camera lenses.

 

[Fuzzball84]

That's the problem I have with most Apple products. They do not give you a lot of choices. Dell for example has a lot more different notebooks than Apple and many of them are still upgradable later. And that is just one manufacturer of Windows or Linux notebooks. If you prefer MacOS, you you can just choose between the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro in two sizes each (plus the old 13 inch MacBook Pro). There is not even a 17 inch option from Apple.

Many people do not want to have the same phone as 40 million other people. It reminds me very much of those nightmarish suburbs of some cities in the US, where dozens or hundreds of homes look more or less the same. Nobody there is even allowed to have a different roof colour. It seems people in the US do not have as much of a problem with that as people elsewhere.

A lot of PC laptops are more modular... especially the business orientated ones. Makes it easy for servicing. And customisation is way cheaper than at Apple.

But Apple don't really really target the business users so much. They target consumers and prosumers.

 

[jole]

I want top of the line device with top of the line features. I want it to have a small screen.
(It does not need to compete on price or be as thin as other iPhones)

Unfortunately Apple is not making what I want. Thus forced to compromise on size: ordered 15 Pro Max to replace 12 mini. Would have paid more to have the same features with a smaller screen. Max is just too clumsy.

 

[Nozuka]

You are talking about two different things. Under Jobs Apple clearly did not lack confidence or guts. Cook is a limp dishrag whose show of guts was to introduce the butterfly keyboard and touch bar. Huge costlt failures which were not asked for by customers.

I miss the touch bar. I wish it was still there. Probably shouldn't have replaced the function bar to be usefull to everyone.

As for the keyboard.... i never had problems with Gen 2. Yet somehow my M1 Air is starting to miss a keystroke here and there..

 

[jole]

Back in the days of Nokia phones, smaller the phone, more premium it was. I loved my Nokia 8810 that weighted just ~100g. Lets get back to top-end models trying to be small

That said - Apple Watch Ultra already does everything my Nokia did, so maybe I just keep the Apple Maxi Phablet in my backpack and use the watch.

 

[citysnaps]

Apple needs a CEO with the confidence, guts, balls and customer focussed attitude to boldly state "Yes, the company could avoid some costs by not making a good modern small phone, but Apple actually cares about ALL its customers and their needs so we WILL make this phone. The company will still be extremely successful and improve its image, so shareholders and Wall Street, think a bit and realize this is the future of the NEW Apple post bean counter Cook"

Yeah, Apple could go that route. And lose a lot of money. Which they'd have to pass on to customers in the form of a much higher price for the Mini.

Just imagine the whinefest that would cause!

Many will be shocked, but in the end Apple isn't in the business of losing money.

The good news is there are a lot other phones out there from other companies. Simply choose one and find happiness.

 

[Nozuka]

Well said, I wish the Pro would have stayed at the iPhone X size.

Well to be fair... the 15 Pro is 70.6mm wide and the X was 70.9mm. A bit thicker and higher though.
But that should make it pretty similar to hold.
(Only to be replaced by a bigger one next year)
So get it while you can

 

[one more]

I cannot see what all this drama is about - my 12 mini runs iOS 17 just fine with its original battery, needing just one top-up mid-day. If I wanted to, I could easily make it last another 2-3 years, for as long as it can support the latest iOS version. Mini 13 will last even longer, respectively. It is not like all minis in existence will suddenly perish once iPhone 15 come out.

Now that we are out of an immediate “mini crisis”, let’s look at it cool-mindedly:

1) Apple gave mini a two-year run, it did not sell too well, so what’s the point of carrying on?

2) mini Pro, which many of you mention, remains technically challenging (not enough physical space inside), unless iPhone gets bigger, at which point it stops being a mini;

3) the majority of content nowadays is optimised for larger screens;

4) bigger iPhone = bigger battery = it last longer between charges, which is a good bonus;

5) if you are really passionate about sub-6” iPhones, do tell Apple directly here, don’t be shy:

Feedback - iPhone

Apple wants to hear from you. Send us your comments and feedback about iPhone.

www.apple.com

 

[spinedoc77]

Too bad, my 11 year old daughter has a mini and it's a fabulous phone. The SE has those huge bezels and less specs for what $100 less? I'm assuming they are updating the SE to be more like the outgoing mini, I couldn't see them producing something with huge bezels and touch ID these days.

Honestly what impresses me is my crappy iPhone 6 I keep in a drawer so I can use iMessage on my Android phone. Now THAT is a really nice, tiny, and svelte phone.