If you had been reading Hacker News or any other tech-savvy platform, you'd have been well excused for thinking there's a huge demand for a capable iPhone with a smaller screen.
In reality, the sales numbers for iPhone minis were disappointing. It turns out that people spending a lot of time writing online about tech hardware are not representative of the iPhone customer base at large.
Disappointing by whos metric? It outsold most Android phones and massively outsold first few iPhone models released. Were iPhones 3G, 3GS, 4, etc. also disappointing?
Just because the PERCENT was low, it doesn't mean the SHIPPED UNITS were low.
In reality, any company you create will sell their product in VASTLY LOWER number than any iPhone Mini. Should you be fired and go bankrupt because your sales will be disappointing by Apple standards too? Should we just liquidate all companies that cater to less than 20 millions of unit sold? Should all other companies catering to small (< 20 million, the number of small iPhones shipped) audiences not exist and be replaced by average products for average people? No more Mac Studios, no more XDR displays, no more 15" 4000$ MacBooks?
By all metrics relevant to Apple's business, as evidenced by the fact that it was discontinued after just two iterations.
Disappointing for Apple, i.e. only a few tens of millions. I know a few people that are very happy with their iPhone minis. They have nothing to upgrade to now. But it's cheaper this way :)