Opinion: iPhone 14 Pre-orders Reveal Apple Prematurely Killed the iPhone mini Lineup

After only two mini iPhone releases, Apple killed the iPhone mini lineup. Trade analysts predicted the demise of the iPhone mini lineup after the supposedly poor sales of the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini.

If numbers are to be believed, I am in the minority of people who were actually saddened by the death of the iPhone mini. I loved my iPhone 12 mini and am still using the iPhone 13 mini (check out our favorite iPhone 13 mini cases).

As we have said many times, not everyone needs a huge phone. The reason why iPhone 13 mini sold in lower numbers had more to do with it not being a Pro model than it being smaller in size. If Apple released a decked-out iPhone mini Pro version of the phone with no compromises other than the battery, We are sure many more people would have bought the device.

And if iPhone 14 series pre-orders are to be believed, our thoughts were on the right track. According to the famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus versions are selling worse than the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone SE 3.

In his Medium post, Kuo writes that

The iPhone 14 Plus is the replacement for the iPhone 13 mini. However, this new product’s pre-order result is significantly lower than expected, meaning Apple’s product segmentation strategy for standard models fails this year.

Apple may cut iPhone 14 and 14 Plus shipment forecasts for November and beyond within a few weeks if the demand for the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus doesn’t improve after the launch.

It’s still early to call Apple’s strategy of killing the iPhone 13 mini and replacing it with the iPhone 14 Plus a failure, but it proves that there was more to the story of poor iPhone 13 mini sales than its smaller size.

What do you think about this report, and are you sad to see the iPhone 13 mini dead? Let us know in the comments.