Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How many times a year do you connect your iPhone to a cable? I haven't done it once in the last five years since Magsafe came out. How often do you play something on your stereo? I never do. Answer honestly.
Many times - main updates i.e. iOS 16->17 I did via cable after doing full update same when switched to beta train at iOS 17/18 (not touched iOS 26 junk). From time to time I do full backup to Mac, more reliable via cable… which takes ages via lightning on my 11Pro 256GB

About audio - quite common to listen to audiobooks in evening or for ambient audio when going sleep or when playing some meditation on Calm app.
 
Last edited:
Regular people usually don’t want big trade offs when it comes to camera quality

Regular people don’t care about the cameras. Nice try though
All these comments about "Regular people", made by individuals who have no knowledge of what anyone outside their own social circle actually wants. The internet is full of experts on "Regular people" now? 🤣
 
Time will tell, but I disagree with this. A foldable allows for actually usable, real world increase productivity as a tool to justify if any compromises and higher price. Imagine having the portability of a phone and an ipad mini, with ipad apps, in your pocket at anytime! I personally think the mini is a device too big to carry on a person and while I might find use for one, still would need a bag as I do with my ipad pro.

A foldable would be a much better seller for mobile professionals and general public as any potential compromises would be worth actual real world functionality, unlike the Air.
I generally agree about the utility of folding phones, especially if Apple's version provides access to iPad apps in the open state. What I am not sure of is the value, especially if these things for $3000-4000 a pop. Sure, some executives can get really good utility especially if price is no object. For the average user, $3k is a pretty steep hill. I can get an Air and an iPad mini for half that with nearly all of the utility.

So far the foldable market is ~60 MM phones worldwide, 17 MM last year alone. That's four years' worth, the equivalent of one-quarter of 2024's iPhone sales. As a reference point, Apple's total iPad sales for 2024 is nearly the same as the global foldables market, just shy of 17 MM units shipped. This market segment is prone to cannibalism and the Apple foldable is not immune. If the Apple foldable is good enough to replace two devices, I would expect people who can afford to do just that. That's not an instant buy moment though and I don't get the sense that this market is about to explode.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kitt9000
Well, it shows that consumers still have a word to say.
It's somehow reassuring.

Well, it shows that current consumers have become phone slaves who need all of the battery life and features possible. It's no longer a "want" for them.

It is fine but that's a worrying direction for the whole world in general.

As for the iPhone Air, it is what it is. Apple did not market it right, did not price it right, and it got put down by "influencers" who... unfortunately have way too much influence and no actual competence.

To me, this means the current tech world is way too much of a hive mind asking for basically the exact same thing across all manufacturers.

Welp, there goes the folding iPhone. I guess at this point, Apple should not innovate and should not introduce any new categories. Just keep releasing base and Pro phones with more features and more thickness per year. That's exactly what everyone in this thread seems to be asking for.
 
Hopefully they release an updated air next year with a better camera and battery. I am enjoying the thin form factor. The battery life doesn't bother me as there are chargers everywhere I go.

As a person who doesn't put a case on any product I appreciate the thinness. Very surprised it hasn't caught on as I feel there has been a shift from needing the largest screen.
 
  • Like
Reactions: macbookj0e
Before excessive doom and gloom sets in, I think we should remember that we don’t actually know how Apple will react to this.

Maybe they keep it around on a multi cycle and lower the price a little, and it slowly finds its groove?

They already reacted. Multiple reports of scaling back production. If this is what the reception is for the iPhone Air, we can already tell what kind of reception the folding iPhone will have. Basically... no chance it will ever succeed in the current market.

So it's more doom and gloom for the future of Apple. They finally innovated for once and what do they get? All influencers put down the phone and a large amount of their market do not welcome it. This means everyone is asking Apple to just keep base and Pro lines. Do not ever try to introduce anything else. They will reject it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane
Before excessive doom and gloom sets in, I think we should remember that we don’t actually know how Apple will react to this.

Maybe they keep it around on a multi cycle and lower the price a little, and it slowly finds its groove?

I hope so. It would be great if it was improved in following generations especially with a price cut.

Also they need to give more than $0 budget for marketing the air!
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbineseaplane
Failure or not, this was an engineering challenge to prepare for the upcoming folding iPhone, which is going to resemble two of these stacked. And perhaps the tech will trickle down to the standard iPhone and ultimately make it thinner with the same battery life it has now.
This. I have always felt the Air was half a folding phone and Apple got it in the hands of customers to learn about issues that may arise with such a thin device. If it caught on in its own right great, but no biggie that it didn’t.
 
Hope this teaches Apple that when they want to do a new form factor they need to go all in instead of trying to protect the pro. Giving this the same pro camera and decent speakers would have improved sales a lot, despite the smaller battery. Let's see if they learn the lesson and the foldable has a pro camera, instead of standard iPhone camera at $2000, just like the Samsung z-fold, where Samsung tries to protect sales of the cheaper ultra
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.