We've been hearing rumblings for a little while now that the iPhone 12 mini, an absolute delight when we tested it and widely welcomed for its diminutive size, may not have lived up to its billing on the sales front. 

Now, Nikkei is reporting that Apple has had enough - it's making a huge 70% cut to the number of units it was planning to produce. That's such a significant drop that it'll see 20% fewer iPhone 12s made overall until June. 

We loved the iPhone 12 mini, which makes few compromises to bring the flagship experience in a smaller body, and that sentiment has been echoed by most people we know who've tried the phone.

However, it's still not a cheap handset, and market penetration seems not to have been what Apple was perhaps optimistically hoping for. Confusingly, though, market analysis from Omedia still indicates that it was the tenth best-selling phone in the world in 2020. 

That might mean that the problem here is as much with Apple's expectations as it is with the phone's actual sales, so we're very much hoping that this doesn't slam the brakes on future plans for smaller iPhones.

Whether other phone-makers were watching the iPhone 12 mini to see if they should follow suit is unknown, but this news also won't spread too much confidence on that front, either.