• N4CHEM@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      I want a smaller smartphone but not an iPhone. It’s sad that Apple is the only manufacturer still producing reasonable sized phones. Small phone gang unite and push for other manufacturers to follow Apple on this one!

      • eric@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Unfortunately even Apple has announced they are discontinuing their smaller phone, citing poor sales, so it seems the small phone gang is too small to have any market power.

        • EdibleFriend@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Small people want small phones. Small people have small hands. Small hands can’t carry very much money.

          It’s simple economics.

          • eric@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Lol. You would think that, but I’m a small person counter example, and the market is proving there are more like me than those who want small phones.

        • N4CHEM@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          I don’t believe the small phone gang is small, we just have one option: a pretty expensive iPhone mini.

          I want a small phone but not an iPhone, I have no option therefore manufactures assume I want a humongous phone. That’s flawed logic.

          • DynamoSunshirtSandals@possumpat.io
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            9 months ago

            I was going to say that the Mini should be pretty cheap now that it’s two generations old – the 13 is down to $629 new, after all, and the Mini ought to be $100 cheaper…

            But it looks like Mini demand has actually driven prices much higher than the normal 13. Strange, almost as if there IS demand for small phones…

            • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              almost as if there IS demand for small phones…

              There is but the demand is small. The smaller the demand gets, the more they flock to whatever options are available.

            • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Small supply means just about any demand change can have a big impact on price.

              Apple doesn’t care about used phone pricing, and until they announced the discontinuation nobody really paid any attention to the 13 mini for a while.

          • eric@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            If it is actually a larger demographic, then it would be huge opportunity for any of these other phone makers, especially those that are struggling. I highly doubt they are all unaware of the opportunity to make a smaller phone, so I suspect they have stayed away because they don’t think it will be a profitable market.

            As production quantities go down, costs go up, and with the lower prices that these vendors sell at compared to Apple, their margins are already much thinner, so they have much more risk than Apple in introducing a smaller phone unless they are confident there is a large enough market for it. They simply have much less wiggle room than Apple in which to create a profitable product out of a smaller phone. Since Apple is pulling out and the others haven’t even bothered to try to compete with them in the decade that this big phone trend has been trending, I don’t think there’s any other conclusion that we can draw other than the small phone market is not large enough to pursue, but I’m open to other possibilities.

            Edit: Someone else mentioned the small Asus Zenphone, which was also discontinued due to poor sales. That means at least one other manufacturer tried to make a small phone, and they came to the same conclusion that Apple did, so I see even less reason to doubt them.

          • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            I don’t believe the small phone gang is small, we just have one option: a pretty expensive iPhone mini.

            You have it backwards. You have no options because your gang is too small. You used to have options but the market has moved far far away from that.

        • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          They say that all the time because it disposes of the issue without them needing to provide any evidence.

            • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              What do you mean?

              They don’t want to make a product. They say “consumers don’t like it”. You ask for evidence. They say it’s confidential, or they deliberately sabotage the availability of the product and say, “see?”

              It’s standard marketing.

              • eric@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                I’m asking for your theory as to Apple’s reason for cancelling the small phone since you don’t believe the reason they’ve provided.

                • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Deciding to make or not make a product is not a simple thing. Lots of decisions are part of it.

                  They just don’t want to talk about it and want you to buy one of their other products.

                  • eric@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    So you have no alternative theory, but you’re just assuming Apple are lying about their reason because they won’t share their company data that led them to that conclusion?

      • kucing@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Yea i wanted iPhone mini as well but it’s hard for me to miss abilities such as using OG Firefox (not some stupid skinned safari) with ublock origin and NewPipe.

    • Skunk@jlai.lu
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      9 months ago

      The 13 mini made me switch to apple after years of android and even Ubuntu phone.

      The form factor is the only reason I buy a new phone so let’s hope there’s still be a market for people like us.

    • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      They won’t. It’ll break and you won’t be able to repair it before then.