[bschwindHN]

My only two iPhones have been the iPhone SE 2016, and the 13 mini.

I miss the SE but the 13 mini is really nice too. It's a shame because the SE is still perfectly capable of running most software I use on a phone, but that software has just gotten more inefficient over time.

[deaux]

Apple says they stopped producing minis because they didn't sell. It seems they sold relatively better than the Air, and pretty much everyone I know who still uses a device of "13" or earlier generation, is on a mini. That's about 5 people just in my social circle still on a 13 Mini, and 0 people on any other non-Mini 13th or older generation. I reckon that's the real reason they stopped making them, people who use them, are willing to stay with their phones for much longer periods. Could also be that they break less due to being smaller.

[seec]

Yes. The kind of people who use iPhone minis are generally more reasonable and won't spent too much time doomscrolling on them or overusing them for random stuff (like pretending you are a good photographer).

In that sense they are very bad customers because they won't upgrade for social status reason or just novelty. They actually need to come up with something that is worthwhile, which is pretty hard. That being said, I'm pretty sure many of those users would upgrade if they could keep the small format and make it more reasonably affordable by removing most of "useless" stuff. It seems like they tried that with the air (no multiple cameras, no multiple speakers) but they made it too big and went with thinness for feeling points. They could have just kept it reasonably sized (under 6") and designed the internals in the same way while keeping it flat but not too thick.

I think Apple is a bit lost because their design focus too much on looks/feelings and social status points. They lack the focus that Apple products used to have, this is what made them interesting: deceptively simple in presentation but actually providing everything that you need without going crazy on the gimmicks.

As it is, one wonders why he should go with an iPhone. They are just chasing specs sheet points, trying to maximise the amounts of stuff they can put on the phone in order to create the appearance of "value". At this game they get destroyed by competitors like Samsung and even more the Chinese. Before, one could argue for an iPhone because of the CPU lead or the software but nowadays none of those things really matters or can even be considered an advantage.

Apple will keep selling lot's of iPhone because they are still somewhat the "hip" brand and people really don't like to change habits. But they are going to need to provide more value in the long term. Since the high-end doesn't meaningfully evolve anymore, brands have started a price war and Apple will definitely need to adapt if it doesn't want to have its crown stollen. In the US they have some time, but I think they are already losing ground in the EU and China has clearly stopped caring about their devices.

[SOLAR_FIELDS]

I have the 22 SE and I suspect I’ll get 3 more years out of it before they EOL it. I would have bought the 16e if it wasn’t such a blatant money grab. Touch ID is going to be hard to give up

[microtonal]

Touch ID is going to be hard to give up

I'm kind of the opposite, I would never want to go back to Touch ID. It's so nice that you can set your notifications to be private by default, but the contents will be revealed when you glance at the phone.

[SOLAR_FIELDS]

I think it really matters how you store your phone as to the usefulness of Touch ID. Someone storing it in their front pocket will have it always available in an ideal position to unlock on grab, whereas someone storing it anywhere that doesn't lock it in a position like that is going to see less benefit of being able to unlock the thing as they grab it.

[pasc1878]

I just had to get a new phone old was a 2020 SE (Previous was a 6S plus) so 5 years.

The new phone is FaceId ioty is much less reliable than touch id. With touch it just fails if I have wet hands or in cold weather with gloves, faceId fails in many places.

[spectre3d]

Agreed, pulling the phone out of a pocket with my thumb on the home button and having it unlocked and ready to use by the time I look at it is is ideal.

Much better than having to pull it out, hold in in a way that it can see my face, then swipe up, then wait for the stupid animation at the top of the screen to finish and the actual unlock to occur and then finally be able to use the device.