Will We Ever See the iPhone mini Again?

We may earn compensation from reviewed products. Learn about our editorial policies.

There was an outside chance, wasn’t there?

A hope. A desperate wish, no matter how desperate.

Alas, it didn’t arrive. At Apple’s ‘Wonderlust’ event earlier this month, Tim Cook and his ever-expanding team of public-facing spokespeople revealed the brand-new iPhone 15 lineup.

We were treated to the regular version, a supersized edition, and the range-topping Pro and Pro Max variants. But that was it.

There was no iPhone 15 mini. Worse still, if you head to the Apple Store today, you can no longer buy one, either. It’s gone. Forgotten. Consigned forever to the history books.

This begs the question: will we see Apple’s most lovable iPhone form factor ever again?

Why I love the iPhone 13 mini

The iPhone 13 mini means a lot to me for two reasons. Firstly, it is a brilliant little smartphone – surprisingly brilliant, in fact.

I won’t lie – I approached my purchase of the iPhone 13 mini with trepidation. It replaced a device in the iPhone 12 mini which was praised for its form factor but heavily criticised for its less-than-stellar battery life. Could the iPhone 13 mini fix that issue? More importantly, would I miss the larger display of my iPhone 12 Pro?

As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. The iPhone 13 mini’s battery performance, while obviously offering the least stamina of the lineup, easily saw me through a day. As for the size of that display, I warmed to it immediately.

This was the first smartphone in what felt like aeons that I could actually use one-handed while walking the dog. Two-handed smartphone operation is often a faff when you’re trying to do something else at the same time and value your expensive purchase too much to risk dropping it onto the pavement. The iPhone 13 mini removed that fear and immediately became the most convenient iPhone I’d ever used. The fact it was fast, tough, and had an utterly brilliant camera system was the icing on the cake.

The second reason this tiny smartphone means so much to me is because you loved it. My review of the iPhone 13 mini and most of the follow-up videos published on my YouTube channel featuring it are the most popular I’ve made and continue to bring in a sizeable audience.

So, what on earth went wrong?

Why didn’t Apple like the iPhone 13 mini?

I shouldn’t jump to conclusions; Apple might be just as fond of the iPhone 13 mini as I am and such a huge swathe of my audience is.

Something went wrong, though, didn’t it? The numbers on Tim’s spreadsheet didn’t quite stack up, did they? The iPhone 13 mini clearly didn’t sell enough units to warrant a place in the latest lineup.

It’s curious that Apple kept it on sale for the duration of the iPhone 14 lifecycle but I guess that might simply be a case of shifting remaining stock and winding down the production process.

Maybe they didn’t like it. Perhaps the iPhone mini was forced through by a team of rebel industrial designers who wanted to battle against the ever-increasing size of smartphone displays. I love that idea. But if it’s true, that kind of renegade action will only last so long before usual practices are resumed and the team members in question are pulled back into line.

Whichever way you look at it, the iPhone mini series feels as though it was doomed from the start.

Its replacement

In January, I published a video on my YouTube channel which explained why people should still buy the iPhone 13 mini in 2023.

That piece of content confused people with short attention spans. You see, I didn’t start the video speaking about the iPhone 13 mini. Instead, I opened with some commentary on the prevailing rumours that the iPhone 14 Plus wasn’t selling too well.

There was a method to my madness. Talk of the iPhone 14 Plus potentially falling at the first hurdle made me think immediately of the iPhone 13 mini. Why? Because the Plus directly replaced the mini in the new lineup. Sure, you could still buy the latter, but there was no new version containing the number 14; for some reason, Apple had decided to go large, instead.

Apple has access to what must be a colossal number of data points for iPhone ownership, demand, and competitive advantages. It’s highly likely that the executive team makes the majority of its product decisions based on that data – it’s the way most successful businesses learn, adapt, and grow.

With that in mind, there must have been enough demand for a non-Pro iPhone with a big display for Apple to chuck one into the lineup, and consequently knock the iPhone mini from its tiny perch in the process.

I still don’t get it, though. Not one single member of my audience has ever suggested that a larger mid-ranged iPhone is more desirable than the brilliant iPhone mini.

What am I missing? What are we all missing?

Perhaps we’ll never know.

Will we see it again?

I think it’s curtains for the iPhone mini, I’m afraid, guys. With talk of a new supersized 14-inch iPad Pro on the horizon and the display estate of the Apple Watch lineup gently increasing, it’s clear that Apple is heading in one very clear direction.

It’s big displays only from this point onwards. The iPhone 13 mini was a high point for anyone who owned one, but it will remain nothing more than a brief chapter in Apple’s history books. It’ll be forgotten by all but those who had the courage to buy one and give it a go.

If you number among that crowd, you’ll be as disappointed as I am about the lack of a return this year and the cruel culling of it from the Apple Store.

At least we know how good it was, though. We were there. We lived it. And we’ll never forget it.

Before you go

Join my newsletter list for a weekly behind-the-scenes video of a tech content creator!