No one wants ‘mini’ versions of flagship phones

As flagship smartphones continue to grow more giant each year, smartphone vendors have tried to avoid losing customers looking for smaller and more affordable smartphones with “mini” versions of their various hero phones. As it turns out, however, their efforts appear to be failing.

Sales of devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, LG G3 Beat, HTC One mini and Sony Xperia Z1 Compact have “fallen short of expectations” thus far, according to Digitimes’unnamed supply chain sources in Taiwan.

The site’s sources pointed to “uncompetitive performance-price ratios” as a key reason for the mini flagship models’ failures. This logic is likely sound, of course, considering the wide variety of mid-range smartphone models currently available at far lower price points; the report noted that mini smartphones from leading global phone makers typically cost between $400 and $500 before subsidies.