We're in the minority. The iPhone Minis did not sell well. I think women especially do not want a small phone because they carry it in a purse anyway (and slap a case on it with an extra handle to make it easier to hold).
The Mini didn’t fail because it was too small. It failed because it wasn’t small enough.
I want a small phone that I can use single-handedly. A smaller screen is a tradeoff. The Mini had the disadvantage of a smaller screen plus the disadvantage of not being usable with a single hand. Because of that, I never bought one - if I’m going to be handicapped anyway, I’d rather have a larger screen.
I've never seen a preference like this, in real life. Usually the thing closest to what you want is the preferred option. You're suggesting there's a hump in the preference curve, pushing people away from their preference, buying a larger phone than the smallest, when they "want" a smaller one.
I have trouble believing this is true. Do you have any other example of this type of preference curve? I suppose the "uncanny valley" may be one, but that seems more understandable.
Small phone vs. larger phone is a very simple tradeoffs calculation.
Large phone: good screen, bad ergonomics
Small phone: small (thus worse) screen, best ergonomics
I'm willing to pick the second option above.
Unfortunately the Mini is somewhere in the middle: smaller screen than the larger phone - thus worse in that aspect -, combined with worse ergonomics than an actually small phone. It's the worst of both worlds.
I don't know about other things, but ever since the iPhone 5 I've been wanting another model that I could use with a single hand. The Mini was never that, so why would I sacrifice a good feature (larger screen) for... nothing in return?
The iPhone Mini size isn't to bad, but I agree to some extent - I think perfect size phone for me would be about original iPhone SE size. It could have a 5" screen if you made it edge-to-edge (for ref the iPhone Mini has a 5.4" screen).
Actually, yes. The mini already has limited space to work with, they had already to shrink the MB, the battery. It would take much more effort to put a pro camera into it. Also those camera do heat up.
Personally, i think the camera setup on ip13mini is fine.
This is a very funny typo, considering the topic at hand.
But yeah, I think I stopped being happy with phone sizes when they started going beyond 4" or so. It's hilarious to me that they can make a phone that's ~5.5" and call it "mini".
I'm an Android guy, and had high hopes for https://smallandroidphone.com/, but the guy who was originally driving it is running his resurrected Pebble company now, and there's been basically no useful activity in the Discord for at least a couple years now, so I assume it's dead.
Insightful! That's a great point: A period where a lot of people (especially the average-higher-income Apple demographic) were more likely to be sitting at home all day. Having a phone that is heavy and barely pocketable is nbd if you just have it sit on the coffee table or desk all day.
> I think women especially do not want a small phone because they carry it in a purse anyway
Yeah, I've noticed this. Many women also wear clothing where they either have no pockets at all, or the pockets are more decorative than functional, small enough that a truly small phone would have trouble fitting (certainly not the 5.5" iPhone "mini", which is hardly mini at all).
I honestly think they didn't sell well because they were called 'mini'. They should have just marketed them as the base level iPhone and it might have had a chance.
