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Apple sold around six million Mini models per year that they were on sale. It's hard to envisage a boardroom scenario where that's not considered successful, b

Apple sold around six million Mini models per year that they were on sale. It's hard to envisage a boardroom scenario where that's not considered successful, but apparently it exists.

dopeboy 22d ago
Apple sold ~230M iPhones the year the mini was discontinued. 2% is an unquestionable failure. -an iPhone mini fan
- blauditore 22d ago
  6/230 seems closer to 3%. And while the number is relatively low, it seems to be a niche where they might lose customers to other platforms. It must have been unprofitable/very expensive to maintain that they killed it. OTOH, it's Apple, so users would rather buy a bigger iPhone and complain than switching brands (see other comments here), in which case Apple loses nothing.
- pbmonster 22d ago
  I don't get that mentality. Millions of units, shares many parts with other models, OK margin. This is no reason to kill a product. For comparison, that's roughly like Ford killing the Bronco Sport, or VW killing the ID.7.
  - Daz912 22d ago
    [dead]
  - woogle 22d ago
    this is exactly what Steve Jobs did after coming back from Next. Simplifying is very useful, especially in a big corp that want to be differentiated
    - sneakymichael 21d ago
      Except having a 16, 17, 17e, 18 Pro, Air, and Duo, …doesn’t feel particularly simple.
  - pistolpeteDK 22d ago
    well, VW has cancelled the ID.7 for the US market, and by 2030 will have killing 50% of their models across all brands (according to topgear).
    - pbmonster 21d ago
      Of course, they never even brought it to the US. It has no chance there, there's barely a market for lowslung station wagons, and close to no market for EV wagons. Always was a niche in the US, while it was always the primary family vehicle in Europe. And yes, VW is fighting for survival. The things they are killing are the low volume models specific to the Chinese market (because absolutely nobody in China is buying any VWs) and a lot of the variants and overlaps they've accumulated over the years. They'll continue making less than 100k iD.7s, and will be happy to do so (it's modestly profitable).
  - drbscl 21d ago
    > I don't get that mentality. Millions of units, shares many parts with other models, OK margin. This is no reason to kill a product. At 2% of sales, the opportunity cost is the reason to kill the product. Keep in mind this still needs design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution resources. I say all of this as a fan of the Mini series.
    - pbmonster 21d ago
      > At 2% of sales, the opportunity cost is the reason to kill the product. Keep in mind this still needs design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution resources. All this is true for many other products, specifically cars. Ford makes the Bronco Sport anyway, and they make money on it. I get it, Apple has much better margins than Ford. And maybe a iPhone 18 Mini would reduce total margin for them. But if they move a couple of million units, it absolutely would make money.
      - eigen 21d ago
        > Ford makes the Bronco Sport anyway, and they make money on it. The current Bronco Sport generation was introduced in 2021 with minor changes in the ensuing model years. Ford USA sold 134k Bronco Sport in 2025, of 783k SUVs (17.2%) and 2.1M total USA vehicles (6.4%). the Ford E-series truck with 3.2% Ford Truck sales or 2.0% total vehicle sales may be a better comparison. It also is a design introducted in 2021. phones are more likely mostly new designs in each model year, but we can wait for the teardowns to see. https://www.best-selling-cars.com/usa/2025-full-year-usa-ford-and-lincoln-car-sales-by-model/ https://www.best-selling-cars.com/usa/2025-full-year-usa-for...
- happosai 21d ago
  So much for the long tail I guess. Tough luck if you want anything quirky or unique, society will only manufacture for the mainstream taste.
  - bonoboTP 21d ago
    Society doesn't do anything of the sort. This is just diffuse irrational thinking. People invest their wealth where it will make the most profit for them and if a marginal dollar investment into the regular iPhone brings more profit than one into the iPhone Mini, then the owners and shareholders will ask the CEO why their money is flowing into suboptimal productions. People put their money investing in Apple in the hopes of a good return on that investment. If you want them to produce something that doesn't give them a good return, you'd have to pay to compensate, ie the price would rise but people wouldn't be ready to pay that. Otherwise you're asking people to subsidize for your enjoyment some luxury product as if it was charity. Willingly foregoing profit for the sake of someone else is subsidy or charity.
  - mr_toad 21d ago
    Long tail works well when the marginal cost is near zero and most of the upfront costs are born by someone else.

Apple sold around six million Mini models per year that they were on sale. It's hard to envisage a boardroom scenario where that's not considered successful, but apparently it exists.

dopeboy 22d ago

Apple sold ~230M iPhones the year the mini was discontinued. 2% is an unquestionable failure. -an iPhone mini fan

blauditore 22d ago
6/230 seems closer to 3%. And while the number is relatively low, it seems to be a niche where they might lose customers to other platforms. It must have been unprofitable/very expensive to maintain that they killed it. OTOH, it's Apple, so users would rather buy a bigger iPhone and complain than switching brands (see other comments here), in which case Apple loses nothing.
pbmonster 22d ago
I don't get that mentality. Millions of units, shares many parts with other models, OK margin. This is no reason to kill a product. For comparison, that's roughly like Ford killing the Bronco Sport, or VW killing the ID.7.
- Daz912 22d ago
  [dead]
- woogle 22d ago
  this is exactly what Steve Jobs did after coming back from Next. Simplifying is very useful, especially in a big corp that want to be differentiated
  - sneakymichael 21d ago
    Except having a 16, 17, 17e, 18 Pro, Air, and Duo, …doesn’t feel particularly simple.
- pistolpeteDK 22d ago
  well, VW has cancelled the ID.7 for the US market, and by 2030 will have killing 50% of their models across all brands (according to topgear).
  - pbmonster 21d ago
    Of course, they never even brought it to the US. It has no chance there, there's barely a market for lowslung station wagons, and close to no market for EV wagons. Always was a niche in the US, while it was always the primary family vehicle in Europe. And yes, VW is fighting for survival. The things they are killing are the low volume models specific to the Chinese market (because absolutely nobody in China is buying any VWs) and a lot of the variants and overlaps they've accumulated over the years. They'll continue making less than 100k iD.7s, and will be happy to do so (it's modestly profitable).
- drbscl 21d ago
  > I don't get that mentality. Millions of units, shares many parts with other models, OK margin. This is no reason to kill a product. At 2% of sales, the opportunity cost is the reason to kill the product. Keep in mind this still needs design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution resources. I say all of this as a fan of the Mini series.
  - pbmonster 21d ago
    > At 2% of sales, the opportunity cost is the reason to kill the product. Keep in mind this still needs design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution resources. All this is true for many other products, specifically cars. Ford makes the Bronco Sport anyway, and they make money on it. I get it, Apple has much better margins than Ford. And maybe a iPhone 18 Mini would reduce total margin for them. But if they move a couple of million units, it absolutely would make money.
    - eigen 21d ago
      > Ford makes the Bronco Sport anyway, and they make money on it. The current Bronco Sport generation was introduced in 2021 with minor changes in the ensuing model years. Ford USA sold 134k Bronco Sport in 2025, of 783k SUVs (17.2%) and 2.1M total USA vehicles (6.4%). the Ford E-series truck with 3.2% Ford Truck sales or 2.0% total vehicle sales may be a better comparison. It also is a design introducted in 2021. phones are more likely mostly new designs in each model year, but we can wait for the teardowns to see. https://www.best-selling-cars.com/usa/2025-full-year-usa-ford-and-lincoln-car-sales-by-model/ https://www.best-selling-cars.com/usa/2025-full-year-usa-for...
happosai 21d ago
So much for the long tail I guess. Tough luck if you want anything quirky or unique, society will only manufacture for the mainstream taste.
- bonoboTP 21d ago
  Society doesn't do anything of the sort. This is just diffuse irrational thinking. People invest their wealth where it will make the most profit for them and if a marginal dollar investment into the regular iPhone brings more profit than one into the iPhone Mini, then the owners and shareholders will ask the CEO why their money is flowing into suboptimal productions. People put their money investing in Apple in the hopes of a good return on that investment. If you want them to produce something that doesn't give them a good return, you'd have to pay to compensate, ie the price would rise but people wouldn't be ready to pay that. Otherwise you're asking people to subsidize for your enjoyment some luxury product as if it was charity. Willingly foregoing profit for the sake of someone else is subsidy or charity.
- mr_toad 21d ago
  Long tail works well when the marginal cost is near zero and most of the upfront costs are born by someone else.