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Comment by Leftium | Hacker News Reader

I also prefer smaller phones so I got the iPhone 13 Mini before it becomes impossible to obtain.

We're in the minority, though. The market has spoken, and it prefers larger phones.

Apple dropped the Mini line after two models and replaced it with the largest screen ever (Max line) because the Mini wasn't selling.

I think people prefer larger screens and larger batteries over the ability to use the phone with one hand.

The Zenfone 10 is one of the few decent "small" phones from a major brand: https://youtu.be/6aK407STsGA

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> the Mini wasn't selling

Yes it was.

Per [1] the Mini makes up about 3% of iPhone sales. Per [2] there are about 200M iPhones sold every year. That means there were about 6 million iPhone minis sold in one year. Per [3] the Google Pixel sold about 10 million units in one year, and that was a record sales year. The iPhone Mini alone sold almost half as much as Google's entire Pixel lineup!

Small phones do sell. If someone reputable made one, they could completely corner a market almost as big as the Google Pixel.

[1] https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/21/cirp-iphone-13-best-selling-l...

[2] https://www.demandsage.com/iphone-user-statistics/

[3] https://www.gizchina.com/2023/10/08/google-pixel-phones/

Surely 3% of sales is weak from Apple's POV. They aren't comparing themselves with Honor or whoever.

Neither am I. I'm comparing it to Google Pixel, which is surely a decent competitor!

Please note that the market is not just the consumers. Companies make larger phones because they expect to make more money because they expect to sell more because everyone buys these phones because they're what's on offer - a self-reinforcing cycle.

Doesn’t that mean a company could gain huge market share and profits by being the only one with a smaller phone?

I don’t buy your self-reinforcing cycle. I think it’s pure demand — consumers want bigger phones, scale economies mean small phones cost more per unit to produce, nobody wants to make an unprofitable niche device.

I'd say the self reinforcing element is a bigger phone allows for a bigger battery and other bigger numbers. It's easier to market bigger numbers so that's what gets prioritised.

Re consumer demand. Would most care? I would guess 50% of phone buyers only actually use basic functionality, but then those aren't the ones spending loads for the latest model, so that would seem to be more fashion/economics, rather than demand per se.

False. Even when smaller phones are on offer, people still don't buy them and prefer the larger ones.

We're in the minority. The market has spoken: people prefer coke to Club Mate.

Yet, somehow, Club Mate didn't get the memo and is still being manufactured.

Club Mate is massively popular here in Berlin.

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