They made the mini phones and it turns out nobody bought them because the people who cry out for them are very loud but very few.

I would guess that Apple sold more mini phones than other android manufacturers sold of their phones.

Apple's problem is it's own success. Unless each product brings in sales rivalling the GDP of countries, it gets cut.

I had one. Loved it. So did many tech people who I know and respect. I believe that this is firmly within the design ethos of Jobs/Ive-era apple, and so it surprises me that they don't continue to offer this in order to keep their brand strong even if the grasping masses don't actually want it.

The actual problem is that the sort of people who buy them aren't the sort of people who upgrade every year.