Update: There's no sign of an iPhone 14 mini in the latest iPhone 14 leak, which also possibly shows that the iPhone 14 Max could be a bit tricky to buy.
Leaker Evan Blass has retracted a claim that the iPhone 14 mini will still make the cut when the next-generation iPhones arrive. Blass said that other sources have told him that the iPhone 14 mini won't be happening and that Apple will indeed press on with an iPhone 14 Max.
"As several folks have pointed out, at least one of the devices one this list is off-base: instead of taking another crack at the mini form factor, a separate source confirmed that Apple is poised to offer a larger size, non-Pro handset; an iPhone 14 Max," Blass explained on 91mobiles. "Therefore, other details here should likewise be viewed skeptically. Apologies for hopes raised, and then dashed."
So it looks like the iPhone mini is dead and it's game over for smaller iPhones.
Previously, Blass claimed that “one of Apple’s top-tier channel partners in the Asia-Pacific region” was listing seven devices it plans to stock “starting next month," including an iPhone 14 mini.
- iPhone 14 mini
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPad 10.2 (10th generation)
- iPad Pro 12.9 (6th generation)
- iPad Pro 11 (4th generation)
Blass adds that “we can be fairly confident in the accuracy of this Asian partner’s information” as it’s “one of Apple’s largest distributors in the market that it serves.”
But then he later updated his article to refute his own claims, noting there supposedly won't be an iPhone 14 mini.
And indeed, such a claim there would be a smaller iPhone 14 flies against everything we’ve heard not just in the last few months, but in the last few years.
Reports of the mini iPhone’s “dismal” sales date all the way back to December 2020, and dummy units that have appeared clearly show two 6.1-inch and two 6.7-inch handsets as predicted elsewhere.
Even Blass' iPad news is a little out of kilter with what we’ve heard elsewhere. In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that we won’t be getting new tablets next month, and will in fact have to wait for an event in October. And we’ve also heard that the 10th-generation iPad will feature a 10.5-inch screen, rather than the 10.2-inch model in the list above, too.
With a reliable reputation, Blass will know all of this, and won’t have published any of this information lightly, so it’s really hard to dismiss it out of hand.
If I had to hazard a guess, I think I would still side with Ming-Chi Kuo, Jon Prosser and Mark Gurman — purely for safety in numbers, rather than anything else. But leakers have been wrong before, and all three of the aforementioned tipsters predicted a squared-off Apple Watch 7 which failed to arrive, so never say never.
Either way, the Apple event rumored to be taking place on September 7 just got a whole lot more interesting.
