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iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

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Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone 13 Mini has a 50% larger screen than the 4S. I have quite large hands, and it's still difficult to use it with one hand and it also isn't as well-balanced when holding it. If Apple expected the Mini variants to be as successful as the others that's on them. It's clear that most people spend a lot of time on their phone consuming multimedia content and so for those a large screen makes sense. But there shou…

uhhh… are you “holding it wrong”? how could the iphone 13 mini possibly be difficult to use with large hands? i have a 15 pro max, am not kareem abdul jabar, and have absolutely no problem with one-handed operation…

You can operate the 4S with one hand without shifting your grip. It still (barely) worked with the 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af0gtsjfy7E (the diagonally opposite corner was already really stretching it)

It isn’t workable with larger screens (even the mini): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K3lTwGxMTk

Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#82

Why would I upgrade though — my $2K 13 Pro is still state of the art, and tech jobs are collapsing. Who knows whether I’ll need $2K in 3 months time?

> Why would I upgrade though

Yeah, why would you? There have been how many Septembers since you got your current phone? Each one has had a new iPhone released. Next September there will be a new iPhone, and the September after that...

Get a new phone when you want a new phone. You don't need a new one just because there is a new one.

Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#84
post #77
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just didn't sell very well at all. I've seen estimates that the little phones represented just 5-6% of total iPhone sales while they were around. They're darling little devices, but they were simply not very popular. Now, sure: You or I would probably love to have a product that "failed" by selling only as much as 5% of iPhone sales. We'd either be rolling in dough, or working our nuts off trying to figure out h…

5-6% of sales ABSOLUTELY matters. The biggest question is really will the majority of these purchasers substitute the absent "Mini" model with another iPhone model? If 90% of those users will just buy a different model then there is little advantage to offering the mini, given the additional design/engineering costs of the smaller size. Anecdotally, I'm a techie but a small phone die-hard. I help onto my original SE…

Air would have been a much better name. We will see if the rumored iPhone “Slim” (probably not what they would call it but it’s what I’ve seen some rumors call it) comes out in a smaller size as well.

Re: bigger is better

Yeah and it doesn’t help that they sometimes put features only on the Max phones (like the 5x zoom last year). I like the Max but I like it even better when the difference between the Pro and Pro Max is only size. I’m fairly certain that is due to other constraints (not product differentiation) but I hate it for the “normal”-size phone people when their options are “Go big or miss out on feature X”.

Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#85

I wish that this was seen as a good thing, not a bad thing. Everyone who wants an iPhone already has one, Apple makes good products that last, and new phones these days are incremental updates rather than revolutionary new products, so there’s not a large incentive to upgrade.

Also, paying 1000+$ for a… phone is insane when you think about it.

Not a phone, a mobile computer with a lot of connectivity, senors, compute power, etc.

Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#86

Remake the form factor of the 4S and we’ll talk. That’s the last phone that was comfortable to hold.

Apple listened. They made the 12 Mini and it sold poorly. But persevered and released the 13 Mini. Again, it sold poorly, so they gave up. Don’t blame Apple here, vast majority want gigantic phones.

Exactly this. As much as I like the smaller factors, you can't go against the markets.

Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#87

Remake the form factor of the 4S and we’ll talk. That’s the last phone that was comfortable to hold.

Apple listened. They made the 12 Mini and it sold poorly. But persevered and released the 13 Mini. Again, it sold poorly, so they gave up. Don’t blame Apple here, vast majority want gigantic phones.

My current is a 12 mini and I hoping to find a new old stock 13 mini for my replacement model.

This is my favorite model I've had since the 5! Guess I'm in the minority

Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, paying 1000+$ for a… phone is insane when you think about it.

Not a phone, a mobile computer with a lot of connectivity, senors, compute power, etc.

iPhone? A very restricted mobile computer.

You can barely choose what software runs on it.

Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple listened. They made the 12 Mini and it sold poorly. But persevered and released the 13 Mini. Again, it sold poorly, so they gave up. Don’t blame Apple here, vast majority want gigantic phones.

My current is a 12 mini and I hoping to find a new old stock 13 mini for my replacement model. This is my favorite model I've had since the 5! Guess I'm in the minority

I like the 13 mini. Shame they stopped it. Quite a lot of "opened but not used" ones on ebay.

Re: iPhone 16 demand is so weak that employees can already buy it on discount

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, paying 1000+$ for a… phone is insane when you think about it.

Not a phone, a mobile computer with a lot of connectivity, senors, compute power, etc.

Nevertheless, it is a lot of money to ask for something you will drop, break, lose, replace in a couple of years because its battery has failed. And you can’t even really do what you want with it.
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