Apple’s iPhone 12 Mini is a successful failure

This week, Apple cut its iPhone production by 20 percent by 2021, but it was the iPhone 12 Mini that got the bulk of the cut-off numbers. The order book dropped by about 70 percent. Since the new iPhone devices are expected to stay around 75 million year after year, has the iPhone 12 Mini failed?

On raw numbers yes, but in a way it is perhaps the most successful failure Apple has seen

First, the fact that Apple is lowering production on the iPhone 12 Mini is a good sign that it did not live up to Cupertino’s expectations. There will clearly be an impact on sales of COVID-19, not only to Apple but also across the industry. Apple’s reduction in orders targeted the mini specifically.

It does not cancel the production of the mini, so there is clearly a demand for the smaller smartphone with the latest specifications, but it is clear that Apple has overestimated the demand level. With a launch in September, Apple had trends in the summer sales of its smartphones, tablets and computer on the table, but the long delivery times in a world with a turbulent situation may have clouded the problem.

With Apple’s incredible reading of other areas, such as the larger iPhones and the M1 – powered Macs, the volume of the iPhone 12 Mini call feels inexplicable.

Maybe the idea of ​​a ‘small’ iPhone can’t be isolated. The iPhone 12 Mini was not the handset that unlocked the demand for a smaller iPhone that would bring the crowd into the (online) Apple Stores to satisfy their demand. It was part of the second version of the iPhone SE launched in April 2021. With the same power and specifications as the then iPhone 11, Apple’s geekerati, who were waiting for the small but powerful update, jumped on the SE.

What market is left over for the iPhone 12 Mini? The iPhone SE pushed it out of the ‘cheapest modern iPhone’ space. And above the iPhone 12 Mini lies the iPhone 12, with a slightly larger screen, better battery capacity and a more traditional size of the device (at least traditionally back to the iPhone X). With only a $ 100 difference between the Mini and the regular 12, the Mini was printed and printed from above.

Apple has long had a very narrow portfolio of iPhone devices. By the end of 2020, there were five devices in the ‘new’, along with the counts of previous years. At some point, any portfolio will reach a saturation point. The iPhone 12 mini seems to be that.

Apple is very conservative. It focuses on doing the basics very well, ensures that hardware and software work together as smoothly as possible, and waits for the latest technology to age before adding a bit of a clichéd brand to give it a special coat of paint that only Apple can sell.

In that sense, the iPhone 12 mini can be seen as Apple’s biggest success. It showed Apple exactly where the edge of the envelope for small phones was, it reached every customer who wanted this size, and it enabled Apple to calibrate the iPhone 13 orders, as the world later this year a normal range.

It may be a failure, but it’s one of the best failures Apple can have in its books.

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