Report claims iPhone 12 mini accounted for just 5% of new iPhone sales in January

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Iphone 12 Mini
Iphone 12 Mini (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • iPhone 12 mini reportedly accounted for a small percentage of iPhone sales in January.

A new report claims that just 5% of new iPhone 12 series sales were for the smaller iPhone 12 mini model during the month of January 2021.

According to numbers put together by Counterpoint and shared by Reuters, the smallest iPhone has been less of a hit than many might have expected. However, it's important to remember that none of these numbers are Apple's – the one company that knows exactly how many iPhone 12 mini handsets have been sold.

Reuters believes that the lack of interest in a small iPhone comes from the way people are consuming content nowadays.

Smartphone users have switched to larger devices in recent years as they devour more video content on-the-go and binge on visually rich social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and Snapchat.

Prior to the iPhone 12 mini launch in November of last year, we'd heard from a very vocal group that all they wanted was an iPhone that was smaller than the growing lineup. Whether those people were smaller in number than we expected isn't clear, but it seems increasingly likely that the iPhone 12 mini sales numbers are on the low side.

Recent reports have Apple slashing orders iPhone 12 mini orders, potentially due to the pandemic.

Weaker-than-expected sales for the iPhone 12 mini in the US and Europe reportedly has prompted Apple to have its manufacturing partner, Pegatron, reduce production for the smartphone model. Competition in the handset remains as intense as ever, and processor vendors are keen to secure orders from smartphone vendors on the one hand, and capacity support from the upstream, particularly from the semiconductor sector.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.