The recent “Mini” variants of flagship Android smartphones that have appeared this year are struggling to find much success. Samsung, HTC, Sony and even ZTE have all released mini variants of their respective flagship devices, and all have met disappointing sales figures.
A report on Digitimes noted that sales of the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini have been “bleak”, due to a combination of better mid-range options as well as “lacklustre” sales of the flagship Galaxy S4. HTC’s One Mini smartphone fared even worse, where it was forced to drop its price more than $100 (around RM320) within two months after its release. The same was also true for ZTE and Sony Mobile, though there were no actual figures to support it in the report.
Sony’s Xperia ZR model, a 4.5-inch variant of last year’s flagship Xperia Z, sports a similar set of top-tier hardware as its bigger brother – a different approach to the other manufacturers in their “Mini” flagship variants. The company is rumoured to be doing the same with its upcoming mini version of the new Xperia Z1 flagship, which may be called the Xperia Z1 f.
Despite the bleak sentiment for smaller Android phones, Apple’s 4-inch iPhones continue to do very well in the market. It appears that for Android smartphones, bigger is indeed better.
