Is Apple going to halt production of iPhone 12 mini later this year?

Apple's iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini

The iPhone 12 mini is the smaller iPhone that people have been clamouring for but only a handful are actually buying. As per the analytics firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, data shows that sales of the iPhone 12 mini have been shockingly low. The report says that the mini only accounted for 6% of sales in the iPhone range since launch and was outsold by the iPhone SE.

To be fair, the iPhone SE is a particularly good deal given its price, but you would expect all the hoopla for smaller phones to manifest into sales, that has not happened. People also pointed to the bad battery life and some touchscreen issues discovered post launch.

Not all of this can be blamed on the consumer, there is a market for small screen devices but it looks like Apple hasn’t quite perfected the scaled down version of its high-tier phones just yet. What is more worrying is that the Cupertino-based tech giant may be considering shutting down production of its underperforming mini, according to reports from JP Morgan Chase.

As per William Yang, supply chain analyst for the firm, the low demand for the smartphone may cause the supply chain to stop production in the second quarter of 2021. The forecast for the rest of the iPhone 12 line-up was strong however, the sales forecasts for the iPhone 12 Pro Max were raised by 11 million, iPhone Pro saw a 2 million increase while the cheaper iPhone 11 saw its forecast increased to 8 million units.

Yang also predicted that Apple may produce 80 million to 90 million units of the upcoming iPhone 13 and he also expected there to be no new iPhone SE models in 2021.