Well, it is all about the demand for low-end phones, the market for low-end Smartphone is expanding, and if you are a Smartphone manufacture, it is impossible to ignore this, that explain the existence of the HTC Desire line up, but what the about the One Mini series? Well, to the best of my knowledge, they do it because there is also a market for it, but a false market. This is a real statistic, 3 out 5 people who buy any kind of Mini variant of the flagship do not realize that there are a lot of compromise in these phones. In addition to that, sales reps in various carriers (at least in the US) are not doing a good enough job to inform the average customers. I see that happen every day, my friends would go out, and buy a HTC One mini or Samsung Galaxy S mini, and then complain that it does not work as well as other people say the flagship variant should, or how come the camera doesn’t have OIS. And it’s hard to blame carriers, because nobody would buy this if they are well-informed. Because for the price tag that these mini variants is carrying with them, they can get a better phone. You know what, there is a simple solution to this, just brand it differs from the flagship stuff. The mini variants that stuck with the high-end lineup blurs the line between low-end and high-end phone, and customer that prefer a small phone fall into the web that OEMs created, and form a market for these mini phone.

Also, I am going to come back to this conversation, but why are 4.5 inches-screens is now considered a mini phone? That is bigger than the iPhone! I mean, I know the phones are getting bigger, but that does not change the standard of the small screen. I carry a Lumia 1020 with a 4.5 inch screen, and people around me still consider it a pretty big phone.