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Comment by jbverschoor | Hacker News Reader

The air is the new mini. With the same amount of low sales.

It's under appreciated because of the "Pro" label of the Pro, and because of battery-hell.

The mini didn't even sell that badly, it just sold incredibly poorly for an iPhone. For almost any other brand it would have been a massive success.

Exactly this. And the profit would be huge compared to any Mac. I suspect Apple dropped it just because they're making even more from selling oversized and over-specced phones.

Yeah, they probably lost almost zero customers by cutting the mini from the lineup. The people buying iPhones, in my experience, tend to just pick another iPhone. So they could simplify manufacturing, testing and so on and still sell the same number of phone, just more profitable ones.

The people buying Minis in my experience don’t pick another iPhone, they just hang on to the Mini.

I wish Apple had released a Mini Pro. Aim at the high end and give it the top CPU and the better camera. And quit making the thin part thin — just make the whole body as thick as the camera bumps or even 0.5mm thicker to protect the camera lenses a little bit (and use the added volume for more batter capacity).

They should do a Kickstarter and collect pledges :) Many say they want small phones and manual transmissions but then don't show up.

I'm a dyed in the wool Apple sheep, but when I saw this smallish Android phone with a BB style kb, I couldn't resist. Should be shipping next week: https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan-2-elite?srsltid=AfmB...

I would've paid twice the price if Apple made something like this.

> Many say they want small phones and manual transmissions but then don't show up.

I wonder if this is some kind of enthusiast bias where owners of these niche products love them so much they run them into the ground so the demand slumps

I prefer manual transmissions and take care of my cars so I am not out there buying a new car as often as other folk. I suspect people who find a phone they really love aren’t trading it in every couple of years like most people.

I mean, why would you stop using a device you care for, especially when the segment is shrinking. An older manual transmission is probably just better than a newer one that they don’t make as many of.

I can't say much about maintaining older cars because I lease and that's a different topic. The idea is romantic, but my circumstances are what they are.

It comes down to economies of scale for manufacturers. If anything, the outliers like the Minis or 6-speeds should be priced much higher than regular offerings, but the general perception is that something named a Mini or something you have to row on your own should be less expensive. I'd love me an iPad mini Pro, I'd pay around $700-800, but how many of us are there for Apple to bother?

Seems backwards to me. I even bought a 16 Pro because I wanted a nicer phone, and I returned it because I liked it less than the Mini. If there was a new Mini I would have purchased and kept it.

> Many say they want small phones and manual transmissions but then don't show up.

But the ones that do are pretty fervent admirers.

there are a lot of iphone minis and manual transmission miatas still out there.

and don't say anything about firefly.

None of the Minis ever had $200+ rebates within weeks after launch.

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