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No one wants ‘mini’ versions of flagship phones

Published Jul 30th, 2014 5:30PM EDT
Mini Smartphone Sales

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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.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.