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> Then Apple finally released the iPhone mini and nobody was buying it, so they had to kill it after a couple of iterations. And by "nobody", you mean "actuall
by bigstrat2003 28d ago
> Then Apple finally released the iPhone mini and nobody was buying it, so they had to kill it after a couple of iterations.
And by "nobody", you mean "actually a lot of people, just not as many as the bigger model". It's ok to have a model that meets a less common, but still extant, need in the market. If everyone followed Apple's logic on this, people with very small or very large bodies would have to go naked because companies would go "that size doesn't sell as much, we have to kill it" rather than (as actually happens) charging more per unit to make up for the overhead of lower volumes of sales.
- sosull 28d agoThe mini accounted for 3% of sales. Personally I’m a believer, and a buyer, but 3% isn’t a good number.
- cheschire 28d ago6 to 7 million units is a good number.
- asutekku 28d ago6 to 7 million units at the scale of Apple is not necessarily worth the investment.
- Y-bar 28d agoI’m willing to bet that the minis made Apple more profit than the AirPods Max and their display business combined.
- asutekku 26d agoI see AirPods Maxes daily, I hardly ever see iPhone mini in the wild, anecdotal of course.
- Y-bar 26d agoMy estimate is very much anecdotal as well, but at my office alone there are three iPhone mini users than (used to be four until they switched job), only one AirPods Max user. I think this year I have only seen one other person wearing them. Much harder to see the exact model of phone people use without staring in a bad manner.
- 6_7 28d agoI'm sorry, how many units?
- majormajor 28d ago"Try a different smaller form factor every couple of years" is a reasonable strategy. First Mini, then Air. Supposedly they're gonna refresh the Air next year, we'll see. But even if they don't: we're well into the "keep phones 3 years or more" era of the smart phone. You don't need an exact match for every phone for everybody every year.
- alex43578 28d agoBut I think you do need some level of consistency to retain customers. Churning models, especially given Apple's otherwise-excellent retention metrics and mechanisms, seems like a self-goal by almost encouraging those buyers to switch after 3 years. If you bought an iPhone Mini or an Air, but that model is gone at T+3 years, that's a lot more likely to result in you looking to Android, than if you bought an iPhone 13 and want to upgrade to an iPhone 16/17.
- jloawjelrjl 28d agoThe Air wasn't "smaller", it was thinner in some areas and as far as I can tell just a pathfinder for a folding phone
- MYEUHD 28d ago> "Try a different smaller form factor every couple of years" is a reasonable strategy. First Mini, then Air. The iPhone air has a 6.5" display. That's bigger than the base iPhone 17 (6.3") and the iPhone 17e (6.1") You're probably thinking about the thinness of the phone. iPhone air is 2.4mm thinner than iPhone 17, but I don't think anyone is asking for that, as most people use a case which makes the phone thicker.
- majormajor 28d agoYeah, it's smaller in a different way than the mini was small. But the thinness isn't actually the appeal. The key thing is that it's a lot lighter. (And yes, a case adds weight as well as thickness. But if you start from a lower baseline, you still end up in a lower place.)
- smokel 28d agoBy that logic a supermarket would sell only 33 items.
- pertymcpert 28d agoIt's not ok if it uses resources that could be better spent elsewhere. At 3% share what do you expect them to do?