Why the iPhone 12 Mini Failed

It’s no secret that Apple is the king of marketing when it comes to smartphones, laptops, and nearly any product in general. But their new iPhone 12 Series has had a Rotten Apple in the basket, the 12 Mini. Everybody was so excited to see the 12 Mini, try Apple’s first ‘Mini’ flagship smartphone, yet even though there was a lot of hype, it didn’t manage to sell much. Causing Apple to cut the production value of the little phone by 20% percent. If the iPhone 12 Mini was known as a good product, why didn’t it sell? 

Size

With the ever-expanding smartphone market, the iPhone 12 Mini was a bit small too. In the last few years we’ve been used to phones around 6-7 inches, but the Mini is 5.4 inches, almost looking like a kids toy. It makes sense why it’s Mini, but it was a bit too Mini as everything that appears on a phone is proportionate to the screen size. Meaning that text, apps, and relatively anything is extremely small, making the overall experience slightly annoying for users accustomed to modern phones.

Battery

Even though the 12 Mini itself is a good phone, its main weakness is its Battery Life. The little iPhone consists of many heavy battery-consuming components, such as the A14, 5G, high-brightness, and etc. Although iOS and the hardware are very efficient in Battery Life managing, the 12 Mini really struggles with all it has to manage, and the extremely tiny 2,227mAh battery capacity can’t handle all of it for a long time. Using 5G even lowers its battery life massively. Lasting a whole hour and a half to 2 hours less than the original 12. The battery is a major concern considering charging isn’t any faster than the competition either. A regular power user probably won’t even get a day while using everything.

Other Options with Pricing

To know whether something’s good or not, we as humans usually tend to compare things with other items with similar purposes. So that’s what everyone did with the 12 Mini, compared it to the competition, its main alternatives were the 12, 11 Pro Max, and 11. As they all fulfilled a similar purpose to the 12 Mini. The base 12 Mini Model is at around 699$, which is a fair price, but with 4GB of RAM and a terrible 64 Gigs of Storage doesn’t seem so fair anymore. Medium.com gives a scenario where you could get proper storage options of 128GB SSD with 50$ more, a decent phone to use. But then, you could also get the 12 for 50$ more, you’ll get a better battery life, screen with 128GB of storage. Bringing us back to reality where the 12 is 100$ more, but actually has decent storage, better battery life, and screen. And if you can already pay 699 for a phone what’s 100 more for better options. So if you want a bit more you have a better option.

Even if you wanted a bit less you’d also have an option, the iPhone 11 currently sells for 100$ less than the Mini at 599, and it’s also pretty respected for being a good phone. So if you don’t care about all the features on the Mini, the 11 has a bigger body size and will help you save a couple of bucks too. If you want a bit more or a bit less there are perfect options. Many people fall in between both these categories and overall just go with the 12 or 11. In a way, Apple jeopardized its own product.

Conclusion

As shown, the iPhone 12 Mini became a Mini Flop for Apple, although it sold quickly at first, the exterior factors got the best of the product. It was good, but not good enough to live up to Apple’s Reputation. Rumor has it that Apple is also taking away some parts meant for the Mini to the bigger 12 and 12 Pro lineups. Will it ever succeed? Highly unlikely considering that its prime time is over, a classic didn’t live up to the hype situation, but will it be remembered? Definitely, it was Apple’s first shot at making a phone between the Flagship and Mid-Tier level. With expanding the amount of Smartphones produced, the likeliness of every phone succeeding lowers, like how many, but not every Samsung phone is a blast. And it was Apple’s first time experiencing that. It may have not done the best, but we all learn from our mistakes, and odds are Apple will too.