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This week, Apple cut production of its iPhone by 20 percent for 2021, but it was the iPhone 12 Mini that took the brunt of the cut numbers. The order book is dropping about 70 percent. Given that new iPhones are expected to remain around 75 million year-over-year, has the iPhone 12 Mini failed?
Grossly, yes, but in a way it could be the most successful failure Apple has ever seen.
The Apple iPhone 12 Mini in the Apple flagship store during a product launch event in Sydney, … [+]
© 2020 Bloomberg Finance LP
First of all, the fact that Apple is cutting production of the iPhone 12 Mini is a good sign that it did not meet Cupertino’s expectations. Clearly there will be an impact on COVID-19 sales not just to Apple but to the entire industry. Apple’s order reduction has specifically targeted the mini.
It does not cancel production of the mini, so there is clearly a demand for the smaller smartphone with the latest specifications, but it is clear that Apple overestimated the level of demand. With a launch in September, Apple had trends in the summer sales of its smartphones, tablets and desktops, but long wait times in an upside-down world perhaps clouded the problem.
With Apple’s astonishing reading of other areas, such as larger iPhones and M1-powered Macs, the iPhone 12 Mini’s call volume feels inexplicable.
Perhaps the idea of a “small” iPhone cannot be sustained in isolation. The iPhone 12 Mini wasn’t the phone that unlocked the demand for a smaller iPhone that would draw crowds to Apple Stores (online) to meet their demand. That belonged to the second version of the iPhone SE that was released in April 2021. With the same power and specifications as the then current iPhone 11, any of the Apple geekerati who were waiting for the small but powerful update jumped to the SE.
What market did the iPhone 12 Mini have? The iPhone SE took it out of the ‘cheapest modern iPhone’ space. And on top of the iPhone 12 Mini is the iPhone 12, with a slightly larger screen, better battery capacity, and a more traditional phone size (at least traditional that dates back to the iPhone X). With just $ 100 difference between the Mini and the regular 12, the Mini squeezed down and out from the top.
For a long time, Apple had a very small portfolio of iPhones. At the end of 2020, there were five phones that were in the ‘new’, along with the countess’s phones from previous years. At some point, any portfolio will reach saturation point. The iPhone 12 mini seems to be that point.
Apple is a very conservative company. It focuses on getting the basics right, making sure hardware and software work together as smoothly as possible, and waiting for cutting edge technology to mature before throwing a brand cliché on top to give it a special coat of Apple paint. can sell.
In that sense, the iPhone 12 mini could be seen as Apple’s biggest success. It showed Apple exactly where the edge of the small phone envelope was, reached out to all customers who wanted this size, and allows Apple to calibrate iPhone 13 orders as the world reaches normal later this year.
It may be a flop, but it’s one of the best glitches Apple could have on its books.
Now read the latest iPhone headlines on Apple Loop …
