Apple brought some life back to the compact premium phone market with the iPhone 12 Mini back in 2020. The company followed it up with the iPhone 13 Mini last year, but it appears sales of the compact phone have disappointed—in China, at least.
A report released by Counterpoint Research on weekly iPhone sales in China has revealed how sales are spread across the various iPhone models in the market. The iPhone 13 leads the way with a massive 51% of sales, the iPhone 13 Pro Max coming in with 23%, followed by the iPhone 13 Pro with 21%. The iPhone 13 Mini? A paltry 5%.
While enthusiasts like to sing praises of compact phones, it appears that smaller phones just do not sell anywhere as near as bigger devices in the same lineup. The Galaxy S10e, for example, was also the lowest-selling device in the S10 series.
There's an argument to be made for these numbers not telling the entire story, as they only provide a look at the Chinese market. Last year, however, the iPhone 12 Mini sold less than 20% of the regular iPhone 12 globally. Then, there was the excuse of the iPhone SE cannibalizing sales but the iPhone 13 Mini has no such defence. There's solid evidence of the mini iPhone simply selling poorly compared to its stablemates. According to leaker Digital Chat Station, Apple may opt out of making an iPhone 14 Mini. Sales figures considered, that wouldn't be a bad business decision.