Buy an iPhone 13 mini now because it's going away tomorrow
When the original iPhone 12 mini was launched in 2020, everyone including Apple expected it to be a smash hit. Now as the iPhone 15 range is about to be announced, there won't be a new mini -- and the old one that's still been hanging on will surely go.
Apple's Kaiann Drance unveils the iPhone 12 mini with the James Bond theme playing
It was launched with a fanfare and high hopes, but the iPhone mini is likely to vanish this week without a mention. At least, Apple is not going to mention it, and Apple's website is certain to be scrubbed of all details of it, outside of archived support documents.
For other people, though, the iPhone mini will be missed and it will be missed a lot. It just turned out that there weren't enough people who felt that way, or at least not enough for them to buy.
Introducing the iPhone 12 mini
On October 13, 2020, Apple spent 28 minutes and 13 seconds drilling down into all of the details of the iPhone 12 -- just the regular one, not the iPhone 12 Pro. Then came a little "one more thing" kind of announcement.
"But to add to all these big announcements, we also wanted to do something a little different," said Kaiann Drance, Apple's vice president of iPhone Product Marketing. "Something only Apple would do."
With a James Bond theme backing track, Drance then opened the kind of suitcase a spy might have, revealing another, smaller case inside. And then a smaller one inside that, Russian Doll style.
"This is iPhone 12 mini," she said. "With its amazing size, it fits in the palm of your hand while still keeping the expansive edge-to-edge Super Retina XDR display."
"With its compact size, the iPhone 12 mini has the exact same features as iPhone 12," continued Drance. "You're just choosing between two great sizes."
That genuinely was the only difference. The new iPhone 12 mini was smaller, it went against the world's apparent craze for ever larger phones, but it did not cut down on any features.
"In fact, iPhone 12 mini is the smallest, thinnest, and lightest 5G phone in the world," she said. "With its large screen and compact size, we think this will be an incredibly popular iPhone."
But it just wasn't to be.
It's too much to call the mini a flop
By January 2021, when all of the Christmas and holiday sales were over, it was reported that the iPhone 12 was doing better than the iPhone 11 had the year before.
Except for the iPhone 12 mini.
There was no iPhone 11 mini to compare it to, and Apple does not release detailed sales breakdowns. But according to research at the time, it was estimated that the iPhone 12 mini accounted for only 6% of US iPhone sales.
That was reportedly only fractionally higher than the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, and second-generation iPhone SE, which were all still on sale -- and all a lower cost than the mini's $699.
It was a surprise given how vocal people had been about wanting a smaller iPhone. Perhaps that's a lesson in how vocal volume doesn't equal buying volume.
But while you can't truly call 6% of iPhone sales a flop, not when that amounts to millions of devices, but still the figure was lower than anyone imagined. And enough so that there was a notion that Apple couldn't believe it either, so that's why they tried again.
Introducing the iPhone 13 mini
In truth, Apple was doubtlessly long committed to the iPhone 13 mini before the sales figures were in for its predecessor. In any case, come September, 2021, Apple launched the iPhone 13 mini with better cameras, and a smaller notch.
This time, Apple spent about 20 minutes talking up the iPhone 13. It's not fair to say that the iPhone 13 mini got no time at all -- but it didn't really.
Apple mentioned the name iPhone 13 mini around the start, and then came back to say it again in order to boast that the iPhone 13 range still started at $699.
True, everything that could really be said about the small size had been said the year before. And you could assume that everything that was said about the iPhone 13 applied to the iPhone 13 mini
But there was none of Apple's usual comments about its "most popular iPhone ever," or anything like that.
The iPhone 13 mini was just there.
And then it wasn't.
Exit the iPhone 13 mini
Or at least, come 2022 and the next iPhone launch, there was no sign of an iPhone 14 mini. Now it looked as if Apple had decided it made a mistake making a smaller iPhone, and instead it made a bigger one.
This was the launch of the iPhone 14 Plus, the first time users could buy a larger-screen iPhone without paying the hundreds of dollars extra to get an iPhone 14 Pro Max.
As it happens, the iPhone 14 Plus appears to have been a bit of a bust, too.
Maybe we're all fickle. Or maybe Apple got it right with the iPhone, the iPhone Pro, and the iPhone Pro Max. Maybe there just isn't demand for anything outside of those three.
If so, there's a good chance that the forthcoming iPhone 15 Plus will be the last of the Plus models, too.
But what's more certain is that come the launch of the iPhone 15 range, Apple will revamp what models it offers. The Pro models from last year will certainly be gone, but so too should be the iPhone 13.
Instead, the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Plus will take their place at the bottom of Apple's iPhone range.
The iPhone 13 mini will still be available for a time from other resellers, but it is expected to be erased completely from Apple's sales channels of new devices.
It's not as if Apple would ever keep selling something just from sentiment or because those people who like something, really like it. But it is a shame to see the last small iPhone disappear.
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Comments
I have the iPhone 12 mini and prefer the smaller form factor.
While I was surprised that the Mini wasn't popular enough to stay in the lineup, a bigger shocker for me--at least if the rumored sales reports are to be believed--is that the iPhone 14 Plus has been a disappointment, maybe even a bust. Given that the Pro Max is the leading seller in the iPhone lineup, a comparable sized screen for regular iPhones seemed like the ultimate no brainer. And Apple didn't get greedy with the $100 upcharge over the standard size screen, which maintained Apple's $200 price difference between regular iPhones and their Pro counterparts. As with the Mini, I'm not surprised that the Plus will make it to a second model year because I'm sure Apple was committed to that long ago, but I'll be curious to see if there's an iPhone 16 Plus in the lineup.
I've loved carrying a small iPhone for the last (almost) three years. I love the way it slides easily into a front pocket, even with my wallet attached. I love how light it is, and how comfortable it is to hold, especially with the wallet adding some depth. I've never used a case with my minis in order to maintain the "small as possible" footprint, and have never regretted it.
That said, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to keep the 13 mini for a third year, and the small screen has started to feel cramped and limiting. This might just be my brain trying to trick me into accepting the tradeoffs I'll experience with my next phone, though. When I got the 12 mini, I was all about smaller devices: first, the tiny iPhone in 2020; then, replacing my 11-inch 2018 iPad Pro with an iPad mini 6 in 2021. This year, I decided that I just had too many things that would benefit from a larger iPad screen and grabbed a lightly-used M1 iPad Air (and sold the iPad mini), and now I'm debating between a 15 Pro and 15 Plus. On the one hand, most of the high end features (but not the longer zoom of the Max), which I haven't really experienced in a few years; on the other hand, a really big screen and lighter weight. I'm leaning toward the latter - if I'm going to lose out on the pocketability of the mini, I might as well go big, right? - but won't be able to completely decide until after the event.
I would also make the observation that just about any other manufacturer would regard a phone with the mini’s volumes of sales as a success.
Still, in that test, the larger phones last longer and the 13 mini drained in just under 7 hours. The 14 Plus lasted nearly 9.5 hours. For heavy phone users, the bigger models are more likely to make it through a full day without charging.
Personally I like the mini form factor. I've been using the bigger models for a while and every time they are a pain to take in/out of my pocket, difficult to hold with one hand taking photos, heavy etc. The extra battery life is really nice, especially when travelling internationally where it's harder to charge but the newer minis should last long enough.
The main reason I haven't bought a newer mini is price. There were cheaper deals on the older larger models. If the next iPhone SE has the iPhone mini design at the SE price, that would be ideal.
Also, that sucker seems to have been extremely popular in some markets (really; just the other day I was at this store in Lisbon where I was told it was the best-selling model), and Apple would be completely idiotic if they left that money on the table or let Android phones eat their lunch…
I predict that in two, three years we'll see an iPhone 17 or 18 Mini, specifically tailored to keep all these users on a parallel upgrade path. Until then, I'll keep swapping the battery on mine. About the only product I'll hoard are MagSafe covers, those seem to be getting fairly rare lately.
Fans of small phones - Bad news for you. You are in a minority and there will NOT be options for you to choose. iPhone 13 mini will most likely be the last of its kind. If Apple decides to finally give up this segment, then bad luck for you. You have to adapt to larger sized phones eventually.