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Apple's iPhone Air Experiment Fails as Supply Chain Cuts Production by 80%

Not shocked at all. With the base 17 model being such an upgrade and the Pro models covering anyone that wants all the bells and whistles, why wouldn’t anyone actually want a compromised iPhone like the Air
 
JPack said:
1. Denial
2. Anger <—
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

You’ll probably notice a lot angry posts about lack of marketing, blaming reviewers, or something else. Anything but the actual product itself.

Most people want at least a couple cameras, the bast battery life they can get, and stereo speakers. The $999 price tag doesn’t help.
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Who needs a speaker?? just use AirPods and who needs usb-c?? just use Wifi and why do you need 2 lenses 1 is more than enough and if battery life isn't enough for you just buy the battery pack. This is the new trend remove features, cut corners, jack up the price and call it courage and innovation.
 
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I think the answer is really simple: it's the cameras, stupid.

I didn't buy an iPhone Mini because I wanted the best cameras. I waited for a 16 Pro. I think the market for the iPhone Mini would've been bigger if it had been a pro phone and had 3 cameras. I would've accepted a thicker phone, because what I liked about the mini was the size, not the weight.

The iPhone 17 is an amazing deal, and it still has great cameras. But only ONE camera for a MORE EXPENSIVE phone? No. Absolutely not.

The iPhone Air is a bad deal in every single way. Fewer cameras, less battery life, more expensive. Everyone is used to the weight of phones now and you'll want a case on your Air anyway, obviating any benefits of the slimmer form factor. Hopelessly bad idea.
 
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Nozuka said:
Mini, Plus, Air...

The cursed line.

Lets see if the Fold will do better...
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Disagree. I know people that held onto their iPhone 7 Plus model and only upgraded to the iPhone Air. They are the same physical size, and Apple failed to compare them because the iPhone 7 Plus is a 10 year old phone that people still used up until and still this year.

They only fail in the eyes of those that fail to use them.
 
danpass said:
It likely didn't help that they included "hey, we even created a battery pack for it" in the Keynote.

Just let the battery pack be available in the Accessories section.

Glad I got both an Air and an Air battery :D

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I agree, I think they shot themselves in the foot with that one. It became known as a phone with bad battery life before it even hit the market. If they had simply downplayed the battery life, most people would likely have been like “eh, good enough”. Since it is likely on par with phones from just a few years ago.
 
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Hartley usually writes the bad news articles.. oh wait, most MR readers think this is happy news, so I guess it makes sense for Juli to author it.
 
I picked one up in a Store, and I have to say... it was completely pointless.

The announcement video was all about female influencers, and no one else.

Production wise, I think it was a partial test for a foldable phone.

But as a product... it is pointless.
 
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I have no interest in a small iPhone, and the majority want larger phones anyway. But they probably would have been better off creating the Mini Pro instead. The Air is too much of a compromise.
 
RealMonster said:
I think the answer is really simple: it's the cameras, stupid.

I didn't buy an iPhone Mini because I wanted the best cameras. I waited for a 16 Pro. I think the market for the iPhone Mini would've been bigger if it had been a pro phone and had 3 cameras. I would've accepted a thicker phone, because what I liked about the mini was the size, not the weight.

The iPhone 17 is an amazing deal, and it still has great cameras. But only ONE camera for a MORE EXPENSIVE phone? No. Absolutely not.

The iPhone Air is a bad deal in every single way. Fewer cameras, less battery life, more expensive. Everyone is used to the weight of phones now and you'll want a case on your Air anyway, obviating any benefits of the slimmer form factor. Hopelessly bad idea.
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Everyone is "used to the weight"? Completely disagree. This is all about the weight.

I only upgraded from an SE 2020 because of the reduced weight the Air received, yet still had size increased. I have a 13 gram metal bumper on my 164 gram Air, making it 177 grams total.
 
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AgentOSX said:
I picked one up in a Store, and I have to say... it was completely pointless.

The announcement video was all about female influencers, and no one else.

Production wise, I think it was a partial test for a foldable phone.

But as a product... it is pointless.
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So the thinnest, lightweight premium looking new iPhone as a product is pointless.

Alrighty then….
 
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jz0309 said:
So 1 month in without having any insights what the initial production was and now repeated stories about supply chain cuts ...
I rather wait until the calendar Q4 is over and see what Apple has to say before calling it a "fail"...
Is the Air for everyone? Sure not but people still buy and use it.
At the end of the day, Apple will decide as Apple surely had sales targets (which no one including Gurman and Kuo have no insight into) and we'll have to see how this impacts or not the future.
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What exactly do you think will happen after two months? Three months? Four months? Will consumers suddenly change their requirements for a smartphone? They’ll reverse their decision and accept a single camera, reduced battery life, and mono speaker?

You really don’t think Kuo has visibility on sales targets and supply chain? Apple snaps their fingers and parts show up with no need for assembly lines and material procurement?
 
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Plutonius said:
Apple's marketing strikes again.

You think that the demand would have been researched in advance.
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It was. The problem was the product they built was likely not the product researched.

If you paid more for an ultra thin design that broke new ground, cool.

But paying more for 3/4s of your phone to be thin, 1/4 to still be fat, and in exchange, you get a bad photo experience lacking features that make current cameras good, all for much more money, it’s a no go.

Apple would have been better off with a wedge shape than this design, like the original macbook air. And 2 cameras with all the helpers the other phones have built in.

Otherwise you have a what looks like a squished 16e. The innards being more powerful than the 16e aren’t that meaningful to most people. The camera, battery and speakers are more important to non-“pro” users.
 
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canadianreader said:
Who needs a speaker?? just use AirPods and who needs usb-c?? just use Wifi and why do you need 2 lenses 1 is more than enough and if battery life isn't enough for you just buy the battery pack. This is the new trend remove features, cut corners, jack up the price and call it courage and innovation.
Click to expand...
Don't be surprised if apple cuts everything out. The Air is a big hit in china. I am waiting on til 2 years for the folder to fix the oncoming problems assuming it survives or even comes out. With marketing fools in charge anything is possible
 
I think it is essentially proof that the iPhone price bracket is too tight for three different models. There’s only a few hundred bucks between base and top, if you don’t count going overboard on storage.

I do think we will all benefit from the development of this in future phones though, and not just a foldable (which I’m not super interested in). So I don’t consider it a failure s such. It’s important to have peak products to spark new development, even if they don’t sell well. In that sense, this phone is a lot more important than the previous “plus” phones, which didn’t really bring anything interesting to the table.
 
RealMonster said:
I think the answer is really simple: it's the cameras, stupid.

I didn't buy an iPhone Mini because I wanted the best cameras. I waited for a 16 Pro. I think the market for the iPhone Mini would've been bigger if it had been a pro phone and had 3 cameras. I would've accepted a thicker phone, because what I liked about the mini was the size, not the weight.

The iPhone 17 is an amazing deal, and it still has great cameras. But only ONE camera for a MORE EXPENSIVE phone? No. Absolutely not.

The iPhone Air is a bad deal in every single way. Fewer cameras, less battery life, more expensive. Everyone is used to the weight of phones now and you'll want a case on your Air anyway, obviating any benefits of the slimmer form factor. Hopelessly bad idea.
Click to expand...
No, people are not used to the weight of phones now.
 
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We could get yet another new form factor as soon as 2026, with rumors suggesting that Apple will debut a foldable ‌iPhone‌ as part of the iPhone 18 lineup.
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but yesterday we were told that the mythical folding iPhone won't debut before 2029
 
danpass said:
It likely didn't help that they included "hey, we even created a battery pack for it" in the Keynote.

Just let the battery pack be available in the Accessories section.

Glad I got both an Air and an Air battery :D

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Click to expand...

One of the most bizarre decisions doing that.

I guess the thinking was, everyone will think it's got crap battery life so we'll include a battery pack to allay concerns. The thing is the reverse is true, by having a battery pack AND highlighting it in the announcement all it did was confirm everyone's suspicions.

As you say they should have kept quiet about it. And it wouldn't have gone a miss to create a battery pack for the other iPhones. The Air being the only one is like having a big flashing warning on the thing saying 'STAY AWAY, BATTERY IS TERRIBLE'
 
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