Comment by paxys
9 months ago
We've seen this story play out before. Every phone manufacturer has had the bright idea of introducing a small flagship. They spend a ton of money developing and marketing it. Internet people get excited. And when launched - no one buys it. They learn their lesson and move on.
> They spend a ton of money developing and marketing it.
I beg to differ. How much marketing money did Apple spend on the mini line, in comparison to the "standard" size ?
> And when launched - no one buys it.
Pixel 3 and 4a are still the most sold phones in the Pixel line.
The news when Pixel7 was launched:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/gadgets-news/this-is-the...
It does not surprise me that the things that "internet" people want are not generally popular. What I don't understand is why that means they can't make money selling them anyways. Companies used to make money when the entire cell phone market was _dramatically_ smaller than today. Sure, maybe only 5% of customers want that phone, but 5% of a huge market is still a lot of people! I just have trouble believing that there isn't room for serving that segment of the consumer base.
Yeah, that is surprising and frustrating to me as well. I don't mind being a smaller market. Hell, I don't mind paying more because of it. But companies these days are largely unwilling to have a steady, sustainable business in a smaller market. The insatiable desire to capture the biggest market at all times leaves society as a whole much worse off, because if your needs aren't the most common - you simply cannot find anyone who will do business with you.
Apple never released a flagship iPhone Mini, i.e. an iPhone Mini Pro. If you wanted good cameras (like the more useful 2x or 3x lens, rather than the mostly-useless 0.5x lens that they added to the base models), you had to get the large or larger phone.
I would've bought the 13 Mini Pro if it had existed, but camera quality wasn't something I was willing to compromise on.
the foldables seem to have found their niche at least in this space though. But they get away with it by... also being a big phone
iPhone Fold is rumored to be 5.5" screen size.
Slight tangent, I thought nowadays everyone is (are?) internet people. Everyone's on their phone all the time. Even if it's tiktok or instagram, why aren't brands spending to reach this audience.
1% of people post/comment, 99% like/retweet or just read. everyone you read on the internet is weird by default
That's sad. I've always felt that by engaging in a community, I'm being weird somehow. Even mainstream social media, I don't see my peers commenting anything. When I comment I feel like I'm being weird.