The iPhone 12 mini may actually have to be discontinued. Not because this model is selling catastrophically. And not because it suffers from terrible defects that make the life of its users miserable. According to analyst companies, the iPhone 12 mini accounted for an average of 6 per cent of all iPhones sold in the first two weeks of January 2021. In the second half of January, the average share of the iPhone 12 mini decreased to 5%. In the first two weeks of February, it most likely fell even lower. Apple does not forgive this: if a device is not in demand, it is most often removed from production lines. Is this the case?
Many wrote that the iPhone 12 mini was the only new generation iPhone that never made it into the top ten best-selling smartphones globally. This fact was explained in different ways: either the time of small smartphones is hopelessly gone, or Apple is doing something wrong. Statistics support the first reason. The demand for smartphones with a screen diagonal smaller than 6 inches (15.2 cm) is decreasing month after month – over the past two years, it has grown compared to the previous month only once, in May 2020. It is more difficult for those who are used to a large screen to return to cramped screens of small smartphones than the other way around.
Those who have included a device codenamed D52g (the upcoming iPhone 12 mini) in the product line could not help but be aware of this trend and are too smart to fight it. The iPhone 12 mini has been designed from the outset as a niche product for those who don’t want to follow fashion and give in to temptations. Apple has a “minimalist” lobby, and there are a lot of them among iPhone developers. And the iPhone 12 mini was developed with love, maybe even more carefully than the mainstream models “on the head of the day.” This is the best small smartphone in the world. It didn’t make the top ten, but it didn’t disappoint Apple.
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IPhone 12 mini sales
The iPhone 12 mini is said to disappoint Apple, who expected something more from it. And as if someone from Apple’s management said so directly, almost in an interview with some publication. In December-January, iPhone 12 mini sales were in line with Apple’s expectations; the reasons for their fall in late January and early February (if any) would have been obvious. None of Apple’s management would talk about this outside the guarded and eavesdropping premises, especially with strangers. In launching the campaign against the iPhone 12 mini, this “interview” played a detonator’s role. The iPhone 12 mini didn’t disappoint Apple. They sold exactly as much as they should have sold.
Which is better – iPhone 12 mini or iPhone SE 2?
In the spring of 2020, fans of small iPhones had a fantastic opportunity to purchase a classic iPhone with the most modern chip inside at that time. … iPhone SE second generation. iPhone with a button on the front, compatible with the latest features and versions of the operating system, for only $ 399 in a configuration with 64 GB of flash memory.
The perfectly acceptable 256GB variant can be purchased for as little as $ 549. The peak of sales of the iPhone SE in 2020 came in May – when the demand for smartphones with a diagonal of less than 6 inches, for the only time in the last two years, even increased. This could not but reduce the demand for the iPhone 12 mini.
IPhone 12 mini production will stop?
They say that due to the failed sales of the iPhone 12 mini, their production is reduced, and soon, it will be stopped altogether. The order for their production has already decreased several times – this is known from the correspondence between Apple and Foxconn, at the factories of which the iPhone is being assembled. There are no free capacities at these factories; they work in three shifts and seven days a week, but the capacities allocated by Apple can be reconfigured for the production of other iPhone models at its request and an additional fee.
This does happen, but they are not doing it because of the failure of the iPhone 12 mini, but because of the unexpectedly high demand for the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. In 49 out of 50 US states, the best-selling iPhone is the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Mini production has not yet been phased out but is compressed; they are being stockpiled for future use – in case the problems with demand for the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max cannot be solved, and the production of the iPhone 12 mini will have to be curtailed. Stocking up a product for future use is not the best way out of the situation, but there may not be another left.