Apple doesn't appear to have plans to revive the iPhone mini

AppleInsider · March 26, 2025 5:51PM

Apple discontinued the iPhone 13 mini, the last of its pint-sized smartphones, in September 2023 -- and we're not going to see another any time soon.

Image generated with Image Creator from Microsoft Designer

The iPhone mini was first introduced in 2020 as a smaller-sized version of the base-model iPhone 12. Unfortunately for fans, it only lasted one generation longer.

The iPhone 13 mini made its debut in 2021, but would not see a direct successor in the iPhone 14 lineup. Since then, many Apple users have bemoaned the diminutive iPhone's absence, especially now that we've gone three generations without it.

And it appears that it's going to stay that way, too. During a live-streamed Q&A, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple doesn't have any plans to bring a mini iPhone back to its lineup -- at least not in the next few years.

And, with Apple's discontinuation of the iPhone SE 3, that means that there are no under-six-inch iPhone models available to buy directly from Apple. The newly-launched iPhone 16e, which came out in late February, is 5.78 inches tall, 2.82 inches wide, and features a 6.1-inch display.

The iPhone 13 mini was 5.18 inches tall, 2.53 inches wide, and had a 5.4-inch display. The iPhone SE 3 fell somewhere between the two, as it was 5.45 inches tall and 2.65 inches wide. It notably featured a smaller 4.7-inch diagonal screen, though this was due to its use of the Home Button.

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hmlongco · March 26, 2025 6:22PM

People say they want one. Apple makes one. People don't buy one. Apple stops making one.

Rinse. Repeat.

On a serious note, if Apple makes one they need to commit to making one for more than just a year. People are on multi-year upgrade cycles, and even people who might want one might be off-cycle and unable to buy at that point in time.

Secondarily, they also need to make sure it has adequate battery life, something that's plagued mini phones for years now.

jib · March 26, 2025 6:39PM

My wife (and many of her friends) value the size of the mini far more than battery life, etc. She is totally unwilling to consider updating from her 12 mini and there are many more people who feel the same. A new model could sell many millions, although not nearly as many as larger iPhones.

edited March 26

prof · March 26, 2025 8:14PM

hmlongco said:
People say they want one. Apple makes one. People don't buy one. Apple stops making one.

Rinse. Repeat.

People did buy it, one dealer I know told me that they sold more iPhone Minis months for months than any other non-Apple or Samsung brand model. Sometimes it's not entirely clear why Apple ditches a product; all bad sales rumours are only unconfirmed speculation. One other products I totally loved was the 17" MBP which was killed but luckily reintroduced as the 16" MBP. Maybe the same will happen to the Mini but maybe not... with that product I have the suspicion that they feel they can't get the margin that they want because people see it as a lesser instead of a more premium product... it's funny to see how that "oooh, but thinner is better and more premium" iPhone Air will play out.

charlesn · March 26, 2025 8:46PM

prof said:

hmlongco said:
People say they want one. Apple makes one. People don't buy one. Apple stops making one.

Rinse. Repeat.

People did buy it, one dealer I know told me that they sold more iPhone Minis months for months than any other non-Apple or Samsung brand model. Sometimes it's not entirely clear why Apple ditches a product; all bad sales rumours are only unconfirmed speculation.

Please. Stop your descent into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. It's really pretty simple: Apple is a publicly owned, for profit company that is in the business of making products that sell well enough to generate sufficient profit to justify keeping them in the product lineup. It keeps making the products that earn their keep and stops making the ones that don't. End of story, The Mini would still be in the lineup if it sold in sufficient numbers, and the story of what one dealer told you for a product that sells globally is absolutely meaningless. Do you think Apple is happy about EOL'ing a new product after just two cycles? Absolutely not. It's questionable if they even made back their costs for research and development of the Mini, costs for tooling and production, design, marketing, etc. after just two years. This isn't to say that the Mini didn't have its fans, and a lot of them, just not enough to make it worthwhile to keep around. Notice also that no major Android manufacturer, even though they seem to run with every new gimmick feature they can dream up, has stepped in to produce a truly premium mini phone--there's no high end Galaxy or Pixel Mini. That's further confirmation that a sufficiently big market for a premium mini phone is simply not there. It's also worth noting that Apple's low-priced and smaller iPhone SE was always the worst selling model in the whole iPhone lineup.

fred257 · March 26, 2025 8:47PM

I have my 12 mini and will buy a flip foldable next. Big phones make me feel ill

eric_wvgg · March 26, 2025 9:20PM

hmlongco said:

People say they want one. Apple makes one. People don't buy one. Apple stops making one.

Rinse. Repeat.

$:\$ I said I wanted one. I bought a twelve, and immediately upgraded to a 13.

Bought my father a 12 Pro and he hated it ("digs into my crotch during golf swings,"), asked if he preferred my 13 and he said "oh yeah, this is way better). So I gave it to him and bought yet another 13.

There might be a fourth in there that I overlooked.

charlesn · March 26, 2025 9:32PM

hmlongco said:

On a serious note, if Apple makes one they need to commit to making one for more than just a year. People are on multi-year upgrade cycles, and even people who might want one might be off-cycle and unable to buy at that point in time.

Secondarily, they also need to make sure it has adequate battery life, something that's plagued mini phones for years now.

The Mini was available for two model years and Apple is famously driven by its vaunted customer data, so I'm sure its sales projections for the Mini took into account upgrade cycle timelines and that not everyone who might want one would be willing to buy it during that period. When you consider what a painful and expensive decision it had to be to cancel the Mini after just two years, you can only conclude that the phone so badly missed its sales projections, with no sign that things would improve, that Apple decided to take the hit rather than continue with it. For a new product to get axed this quickly is a VERY rare occurrence for Apple. Honestly the last one I can remember was the infamous "toilet seat" iBook which lasted only two years from July 1999 to August 2001. The original HomePod lasted three years. And although there was only one model ever released of the "trash can" Mac Pro, it remained in the lineup for six years.

edited March 26

hammeroftruth · March 26, 2025 9:58PM

charlesn said:

hmlongco said:

On a serious note, if Apple makes one they need to commit to making one for more than just a year. People are on multi-year upgrade cycles, and even people who might want one might be off-cycle and unable to buy at that point in time.

Secondarily, they also need to make sure it has adequate battery life, something that's plagued mini phones for years now.

The Mini was available for two model years and Apple is famously driven by its vaunted customer data, so I'm sure its sales projections for the Mini took into account upgrade cycle timelines and that not everyone who might want one would be willing to buy it during that period. When you consider what a painful and expensive decision it had to be to cancel the Mini after just two years, you can only conclude that the phone so badly missed its sales projections, with no sign that things would improve, that Apple decided to take the hit rather than continue with it. For a new product to get axed this quickly is a VERY rare occurrence for Apple. Honestly the last one I can remember was the infamous "toilet seat" iBook which lasted only two years from July 1999 to August 2001. The original HomePod lasted three years. And although there was only one model ever released of the "trash can" Mac Pro, it remained in the lineup for six years.

I think it’s partially Apple’s marketing departments ego. They are sooo temperamental when it comes to product lifespans. They kept some of the beats headphones around way too long and had too many models, they kept the Apple Watch 3rd gen around way too long and were selling it a year before it became obsolete, the iMac Pros were slapped together and stores could not upgrade memory and users were advised to use independent consultants to upgrade memory because of a bad design, the trash can Mac Pros didn’t sell well because word got around how bad they were at failing because of thermal events. The iPhone 5 had a known defect in the sleep wake button, but they kept selling them, the 5c was hyped more than the mini and tanked very hard, so hard that device replacements at the Genius Bar of my local store were using what looked like retail boxes instead of the white ones they used for service. The iPhone SE was kept way too long when they probably sold less of those in 1 year than iPhone minis, they tried to keep the watch edition around, but nobody wanted to pay that much for what amounted to a trickle of gold for $17k, and lastly, the Vision Pro is great, but what will keep the developers around and content coming, when adoption is so slow and most adopters
are businesses and Apple still only demos for mainly consumer use?

Apple could have kept the mini around, just like they kept the SE around for way too long. I’ll bet most SE customers would have easily bought a 16 mini instead of a 16e.

jacobatx · March 26, 2025 10:01PM

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE my iPhone Mini! My wife affectionately calls it “my baby phone.” I took it to the Apple Store to get the battery and screen replaced after the iPhone 16 event. I wasn’t really impressed with the new iPhone, so I decided to extend the life of my mini. It’s like having a brand-new phone again! 😊 I’m so happy with it and don’t see myself upgrading anytime soon. It’s a shame Apple didn’t sell enough mini’s, but I love meeting new people at conferences who share my love for the phone and appreciate its unique form factor. It’s just perfect!

bandits1 · March 26, 2025 10:29PM

charlesn said:

prof said:

hmlongco said:
People say they want one. Apple makes one. People don't buy one. Apple stops making one.

Rinse. Repeat.

People did buy it, one dealer I know told me that they sold more iPhone Minis months for months than any other non-Apple or Samsung brand model. Sometimes it's not entirely clear why Apple ditches a product; all bad sales rumours are only unconfirmed speculation.

...Notice also that no major Android manufacturer, even though they seem to run with every new gimmick feature they can dream up, has stepped in to produce a truly premium mini phone--there's no high end Galaxy or Pixel Mini. That's further confirmation that a sufficiently big market for a premium mini phone is simply not there. It's also worth noting that Apple's low-priced and smaller iPhone SE was always the worst selling model in the whole iPhone lineup.

For awhile, Sony used to make a nice mini phone(Xperia XZ1/XZ2 Compact). If they still made one(they have not for 6 years) I could be tempted to make the switch over to Android when my iPhone 13 Mini gets too old.

cubeover · March 26, 2025 11:08PM

This just means i don’t have plans to upgrade from my 13 mini

raymondai · March 26, 2025 11:54PM

It just like the SE, iPhone mini series should be a longer cycle product, which compare to Pro series, may be 4-6 years for the target customer.
And a Flip/Foldable iPhone will eclipse this segment of the market, at higher price.

m68000 · March 27, 2025 12:26AM

I appreciate everyone who loved the mini, as I also had one. A joy to use one handed - Except I found it hard to type on. I don’t think iOS was really tuned for it.

The typing issues and the smaller battery I do not miss since moving up to 6.1 inch screen. It would have been interesting if they did the 5.8 inch screen for the mini instead.

Also, having Dynamic Island is great. It’s hard to imagine going back to the “notch”.

cubeover · March 27, 2025 3:45AM

Asus XenPhone 9 or 10 are small and fast enough for those who don’t mind dipping droid scanners into their life

muthuk_vanalingam · March 27, 2025 5:00AM

cubeover said:

Asus XenPhone 9 or 10 are small and fast enough for those who don’t mind dipping droid scanners into their life

Nope. iPhone 16 is just 1mm taller and 3.5mm wider. Compare Apple iPhone 16 vs. Asus Zenfone 10 vs. Apple iPhone 13 mini - GSMArena.com For that marginal reduction in dimensions, switching to Android is NOT going to cut it for iOS users. They would be better off buying iPhone 16.

doozydozen · March 27, 2025 7:18AM

Apple would reprise the name if they ever do a hamburger flip phone

mattinoz · March 27, 2025 9:54AM

charlesn said:

prof said:

hmlongco said:
People say they want one. Apple makes one. People don't buy one. Apple stops making one.

Rinse. Repeat.

People did buy it, one dealer I know told me that they sold more iPhone Minis months for months than any other non-Apple or Samsung brand model. Sometimes it's not entirely clear why Apple ditches a product; all bad sales rumours are only unconfirmed speculation.

Please. Stop your descent into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. It's really pretty simple: Apple is a publicly owned, for profit company that is in the business of making products that sell well enough to generate sufficient profit to justify keeping them in the product lineup. It keeps making the products that earn their keep and stops making the ones that don't. End of story, The Mini would still be in the lineup if it sold in sufficient numbers, and the story of what one dealer told you for a product that sells globally is absolutely meaningless. Do you think Apple is happy about EOL'ing a new product after just two cycles? Absolutely not. It's questionable if they even made back their costs for research and development of the Mini, costs for tooling and production, design, marketing, etc. after just two years. This isn't to say that the Mini didn't have its fans, and a lot of them, just not enough to make it worthwhile to keep around. Notice also that no major Android manufacturer, even though they seem to run with every new gimmick feature they can dream up, has stepped in to produce a truly premium mini phone--there's no high end Galaxy or Pixel Mini. That's further confirmation that a sufficiently big market for a premium mini phone is simply not there. It's also worth noting that Apple's low-priced and smaller iPhone SE was always the worst selling model in the whole iPhone lineup.

Your assumption here is it was a sales problem but evidence says otherwise. So it was either a technical problem with no one making phones that size they could get parts for margin they wanted. Or it wasn’t that sold badly it was that it stole too many customers from higher end phones kind of sales problem which also fits the evidence.

Seems so funny that only defense that it sold badly is that any other scenario is “conspiracy”

could be the reason Apple doesn’t allow pairing the watch to other devices because many high end customers would stop owning a phone.

muthuk_vanalingam · March 27, 2025 10:10AM

mattinoz said:

charlesn said:

prof said:

hmlongco said:
People say they want one. Apple makes one. People don't buy one. Apple stops making one.

Rinse. Repeat.

People did buy it, one dealer I know told me that they sold more iPhone Minis months for months than any other non-Apple or Samsung brand model. Sometimes it's not entirely clear why Apple ditches a product; all bad sales rumours are only unconfirmed speculation.

Please. Stop your descent into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. It's really pretty simple: Apple is a publicly owned, for profit company that is in the business of making products that sell well enough to generate sufficient profit to justify keeping them in the product lineup. It keeps making the products that earn their keep and stops making the ones that don't. End of story, The Mini would still be in the lineup if it sold in sufficient numbers, and the story of what one dealer told you for a product that sells globally is absolutely meaningless. Do you think Apple is happy about EOL'ing a new product after just two cycles? Absolutely not. It's questionable if they even made back their costs for research and development of the Mini, costs for tooling and production, design, marketing, etc. after just two years. This isn't to say that the Mini didn't have its fans, and a lot of them, just not enough to make it worthwhile to keep around. Notice also that no major Android manufacturer, even though they seem to run with every new gimmick feature they can dream up, has stepped in to produce a truly premium mini phone--there's no high end Galaxy or Pixel Mini. That's further confirmation that a sufficiently big market for a premium mini phone is simply not there. It's also worth noting that Apple's low-priced and smaller iPhone SE was always the worst selling model in the whole iPhone lineup.

Your assumption here is it was a sales problem but evidence says otherwise. So it was either a technical problem with no one making phones that size they could get parts for margin they wanted. Or it wasn’t that sold badly it was that it stole too many customers from higher end phones kind of sales problem which also fits the evidence.

Seems so funny that only defense that it sold badly is that any other scenario is “conspiracy”

could be the reason Apple doesn’t allow pairing the watch to other devices because many high end customers would stop owning a phone.

Do you have any evidence for the bolded part?

opinion · March 27, 2025 10:31AM

Well, the iPhone 13 mini was introduced almost four years ago, maybe the user base has changed and more are hoping for a mini version now? I just don't get this big monsters of phones, ok for those who want it but not everyone does. Why not add phone support to the biggest iPad and let the big phone lovers use those!

edited March 27

entropys · March 27, 2025 10:41AM

opinion said:

Well, the iPhone 13 mini was introduced almost four years ago, maybe the user base has changed and more are hoping for a mini version now? I just don't get this big monsters of phones, ok for those who want it but not everyone does. Why not add phone support to the biggest iPad and let the big phone lovers use those!

Yes, my 13 mini battery has just dropped below 80%. I will have to ge the battery replaced as I have no plans for a larger phone.

charlesn said:

prof said:

hmlongco said:
People say they want one. Apple makes one. People don't buy one. Apple stops making one.

Rinse. Repeat.

People did buy it, one dealer I know told me that they sold more iPhone Minis months for months than any other non-Apple or Samsung brand model. Sometimes it's not entirely clear why Apple ditches a product; all bad sales rumours are only unconfirmed speculation.

Please. Stop your descent into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole. It's really pretty simple: Apple is a publicly owned, for profit company that is in the business of making products that sell well enough to generate sufficient profit to justify keeping them in the product lineup. It keeps making the products that earn their keep and stops making the ones that don't. End of story, The Mini would still be in the lineup if it sold in sufficient numbers, and the story of what one dealer told you for a product that sells globally is absolutely meaningless. Do you think Apple is happy about EOL'ing a new product after just two cycles? Absolutely not. It's questionable if they even made back their costs for research and development of the Mini, costs for tooling and production, design, marketing, etc. after just two years. This isn't to say that the Mini didn't have its fans, and a lot of them, just not enough to make it worthwhile to keep around. Notice also that no major Android manufacturer, even though they seem to run with every new gimmick feature they can dream up, has stepped in to produce a truly premium mini phone--there's no high end Galaxy or Pixel Mini. That's further confirmation that a sufficiently big market for a premium mini phone is simply not there. It's also worth noting that Apple's low-priced and smaller iPhone SE was always the worst selling model in the whole iPhone lineup.

It isn’t really a conspiracy. The mini did sell in large enough numbers that many android manufacturers would dream of for their phones. But for Apple it had small sales compared with their other phones. So in the scheme of things it just wasn’t worth it for Apple to have yet another product line.

edited March 27

Apple doesn't appear to have plans to revive the iPhone mini

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