Sorry, small phone lovers: the iPhone 12 mini was Apple’s 2020 sales flop

Bad news for smaller phone lovers: The iPhone 12 mini has sold poorly compared to other phones in the iPhone 12 series – bad enough that analysts are wondering if Apple will be committed to moving the smaller phone design forward.

A data firm called Counterpoint Research found that the iPhone 12 mini accounts for just 5 percent of the company’s smartphone range in early January. And JP Morgan analyst William Yang told Reuters that screens below 6 inches now make up only 10 percent of smartphones sold worldwide.

The data from Counterpoint is not the first to tell this story. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) last month shared the sales of their iPhone 12 series in detail. They found that the iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max accounted for about 20 percent of sales from the larger iPhone 12 range during the launch window, while the non-Pro, 6.1-inch iPhone 12 accounted for 27 percent.

But they also said that the iPhone 12 mini Apple probably disappointed with only 6 percent of sales during the measurement period – pretty close to the number Counterpoint shared a few months later.

Wave7 Research, another research firm, also estimated that the iPhone 12 mini accounts for 5 percent of iPhone 12 sales in the US. And Flurry Analytics has declared the mini the least successful iPhone launch in the past three years.

Although all this data shows that the iPhone 12 mini has underperformed, it does not tell us why. According to CIRP’s data, the small iPhone SE also performs a bit better (probably due to the significantly lower price), but it still does not make up a large amount of sales:

A CIRP sales map of iPhone sales during the iPhone 12 launch window.
Enlarge / A CIRP sales map of iPhone sales during the iPhone 12 launch window.

SIRP

While it is possible that the slow sales of the iPhone 12 mini are partly due to cannibalization by the cheaper SE, small phones generally do not fare well.

When we reviewed the iPhone 12 series, we named the iPhone 12 mini a favorite. There are a large crowd of smartphone users who use easily with one hand as being critical, but these numbers indicate that they are a minority.

There are many reasons why small phones are less popular now. First, users consume more rich media content. Many people watch just as much TV and movie on their phones as on their TVs, and some social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat are focused on rich media which for some may be more enjoyable on a bigger screen.

People are now also doing more heavy work on smartphones, which is evident from robust versions of applications such as Word and a plethora of video and photo editing programs that dominate the maps in the App Store. (This is a similar story on the Android side.)

Despite these trends, the iPhone 12 mini looked like it could be a moment of triumph for small phone lovers – a chance for small phones to prove their viability in the market so that this march to ever larger screens can stop , at least for those who do not want those bigger screens.

But if anything, these sales figures make the future of smartphones with one hand look even more bleak than before.

List by Samuel Axon

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