Really?
The first iPod went on sale for $399 and sold under 125,000 iPods in the final quarter of 2001. Reportedly, the iPhone 12 mini has only been 5% of new iPhone sales. That might not seem like much until you realize that iPhone sales this year were so high that Apple had a record quarter, propelling them back into the spot of most valuable company in the world. In the same time period of the iPod, Apple likely sold millions of iPhone 12 minis compared to just 125,000 iPods.
It’s a good thing short-sighted journalists didn’t call on Apple to cancel the iPod in 2001. Apple would have died off long ago by now if they had.
In This Article:
Canceling the iPhone 12 mini Would Be Idiotic
Why did I compare the iPhone 12 mini to the iPod in 2001? Because, much like the iPod, it’s a revolutionary product. Never before has there been a full-screen smartphone with flagship hardware in such a small form factor. The iPhone 12 mini is the first of its kind. Oh, sure, we’ve had “small” smartphones in the past, but none of them had a 5.4″ screen. The largest iPhone 8 was only 5.5 inches. It’s a brand new product category, plus-sized screen in a mini body. The iPhone 12 mini is an iPod when everyone is still carrying around bulky CD players.
We have to allow time for the iPhone 12 mini to take off. Apple is likely making a profit from sales of the device, and their tooling for this form factor will serve them for many years to come. Cancelling it now would waste a large sum of money on that initial investment. It wouldn’t give them time to make an even larger profit on the product category they’ve invented. It would be like cancelling the iPod in 2002 because it didn’t sell millions of units in 2001, instead of giving it the time to completely rejuvenate Apple’s brand.
But it’s worse than that. The iPhone 12 mini has been fighting an uphill battle. It’s a new product category, one that says smaller—actually usable—smartphones are the future. This is contrary to the “bigger is better” mantra cellphone companies have shoved down our throats for years. Bigger isn’t better. You don’t need a screen that’s so large you need both hands just to use it. A device stops being portable when that happens. You don’t need 24 hour battery life when you’re only off a charger for, at most, 6 hours at a time. We just don’t need big smartphones.
Buying a smartphone that doesn’t fit in your hand is like buying a TV that doesn’t fit in your apartment. Great, you own a larger device, but can you use it? No, not really. Not the way you should.
“But the Battery!”
People who didn’t buy the iPhone 12 mini have moaned about the reduced battery life on the iPhone 12 mini. It’s true, it’s not as good as the iPhone 12 Pro. In my testing, it’s about what I had from the iPhone 11 after a year of usage. In fact, in Apple’s testing, it lasts only an hour less in video streaming than the iPhone 12. One hour. That’s a 9% difference in battery life. Turn on battery saver a little earlier on your iPhone 12 mini than you would on your iPhone 12, and you’d never even notice that small difference.
Even by Apple’s often conservative estimates, the iPhone 12 mini gets 10 hours of video streaming. Video streaming is among the most taxing things you can do with your iPhone. Do you really need to stream videos for 10 hours a day? And, if you do, do you really have no access to a charger the entire time?
Put simply, you likely never need to worry about the battery life of the iPhone 12 mini. It’ll last you for an entire day of usage, even if you’re doing something absurd like streaming video for 10 hours without charging.
Everything’s Against It
Basically, most of the people who would have bought the smaller, less expensive iPhone already did so when the iPhone SE came out. By the time the iPhone 12 mini came along, there were only the smartphone enthusiasts, like myself, who were waiting for it. Those people likely won’t upgrade for another two years, and they’re going to want an iPhone 14 mini when they do upgrade.
What’s more, the iPhone 12 mini is a brand new form factor that’s releasing at a time when people couldn’t test it out. I’ve discussed this at length before, but, essentially, buying an iPhone 12 mini is kind of like buying a new car without ever test driving it. You just don’t have a frame of reference for a device like this. Because it released during the pandemic, people had to order their new iPhones sight-unseen. They were therefore more likely to go with what they were already familiar with.
Finally, there’s the marketing. Companies have attached “bigger is better” to everything. Not just smartphones. SUVs, TVs, computers, even meals. We’re told bigger is better. But really? Bigger is just an excuse to sell a product for a higher cost and lower margin. Bigger is more profitable. Bigger is not better.
Furthermore, the idea that big things are for men (manly men!) and therefore small things aren’t “manly” means these smaller devices are attacks on masculinity for men whose masculinity is exceptionally frail. The kind of man who needs a big truck to prove he’s a “man” won’t be buying an iPhone 12 mini, even if it is better for workers who need room for tools or other “everyday carry” gear.
Basically put, the iPhone 12 mini is a brand new category, and Apple’s going to have to convince consumers that it’s worth buying, because everything up until now has worked against it.
Despite this uphill battle, Apple has sold millions of these. That’s groundbreaking. If anything, it proves the success of these devices. Despite impossible odds, they likely sold millions.
We Don’t Even Know Apple’s Expectations
Apple may not have expected to sell many of these this year. They knew sales of the iPhone SE prior to its release would kill interest from small smartphone buyers and those looking for a deal on the iPhone. Apple’s not stupid. They knew they were releasing a completely new kind of product—which is always risky—at a time when people aren’t willing to take risks. They therefore likely saw it as a test launch. Will it sell well? You might say that accounting for only 5% of iPhone sales means it didn’t, but, frankly, that seems quite good, given what the smaller-than-average iPhone is up against.
Apple’s likely counting on the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 14 mini to be more popular. With the tooling created for devices in this form factor, they will likely, at the very least, offer future iPhone SE models in this shape too. To account for the iPhone SE buyers who just like Touch ID, they may use an under-display fingerprint reader, or even the iPad Air’s fingerprint reader. Then they could retire the old designs altogether. The iPhone 12 mini form factor is a long-term design, one that will be profitable for Apple in numerous ways in the future. Apple thinks of the iPhone 12 mini as an investment, like all of their product designs.
It’s Not “Mini,” It’s Normal
You likely haven’t held an iPhone 12 mini in your hands. You haven’t had a chance to use one yet. I have. I was one of those people telling Apple they need larger screens on their devices in 2013, when I was using an iPhone 5. However, I wanted Apple to do what they did here, with the iPhone 12 mini, shrink the massive bezels on their screen to fit that larger screen. Instead, they launched the iPhone 6, a device that was hard to hold and, apparently, easy to bend. While it was pretty, the iPhone 6 through the iPhone 11 were hard to hold devices that were just too big and too slippery for their own good. Suddenly, everyone needed super grippy iPhone cases, Pop Sockets, Phone Loops, and Loopy Cases. We had to buy other products to make up for Apple’s design failures. Large devices just aren’t user-friendly.
It’s a Big Display
You likely haven’t used a “small” iPhone since the iPhone 5, when it had a restrictive, small, 4-inch screen. So let me tell you what it’s like. The iPhone 12 mini has a 5.4-inch screen. That’s just 0.1 inches smaller than the iPhone 8 Plus. Back in 2016, a 5.4″ screen would have been one of the largest phones you could buy at the time. That’s because, for a phone, it is a large screen size. A 5.4-inch smartphone display is still big, just like it was back then. Marketing materials may have convinced you otherwise over the years, but this is still a large screen. I have never looked at the iPhone 12 mini screen and thought, “Wow, that’s small.” Instead, I’ve just thought it seems like a perfectly normal screen size. The iPhone SE might feel small, despite being a larger device, but the iPhone 12 mini does not.
I’m coming from an iPhone 11, with a 6.1-inch screen, and multiple Android devices, also with larger than 6-inch displays. If I can look at this thing and not feel cramped, it’s not a small display.
Fits In the Hand… the Thing You Actually Use it With
Furthermore, the size feels “just right.” Some people have said it could be even smaller. Still, I like it at this size. Every other smartphone now feels gigantic. Everything smaller than this feels mini. The iPhone 12 mini isn’t actually “mini,” it’s normal. This is the size the average smartphone should be. Why shouldn’t a device you’re supposed to hold in one hand… actually fit in one hand? A handheld device should be something you can hold in your hand. I mean… duh.
I’m convinced that the pandemic hurt iPhone 12 mini sales. People just weren’t able to use this in person and therefore realize just how ridiculous their current device is. You can’t go back to the joke that is a nearly 7-inch iPhone after using one of these. Other companies, like Sony, are already working on smaller versions of their flagship smartphones. Apple started something here. This is the beginning of a brand new kind of smartphone: one you can actually use.
I can’t wait to see where the industry goes next.
Sources:
- Samuel Axon, Ars Technica
- Clare Duffy, CNN Business