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I would like for apple to take the technology from the air, and transfer this to the 18 or 19 line (799 cost range). So thin design, 2 camera's platueu, 2 speakers. Ultra thin, 6.3 in screen (I would prefer smaller but who am I kidding).
I would be interested in what is basically a 6.3” Air that’s even lighter than what we have now. Around 5 ounces would be perfect for a phone.
 
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It’s important to remember that Apple doesn’t skate to where the puck is, they skate to where it is going. They put a huge amount of money into developing this phone. Why did they do that? Well, look at where is the puck going. Silicon-carbide batteries. I think they know those are going to be viable at mass production very soon. And when they replace lithium-ion with silicon-carbide there space for a second camera and a second speaker in the air form factor. Think about it… once they can use that battery technology will they still want to be shipping thick and heavy iPhones? I don’t think so.

So the lineup in a year or two could be:

1. Base “e” model
2. iPhone Air (with current limitations gone)
3. iPhone Pro
4. iPhone Fold

This lineup would fit in well with their other product lines (iPad, Mac).
 
It’s important to remember that Apple doesn’t skate to where the puck is, they skate to where it is going. They put a huge amount of money into developing this phone. Why did they do that? Well, look at where is the puck going. Silicon-carbide batteries. I think they know those are going to be viable at mass production very soon. And when they replace lithium-ion with silicon-carbide there space for a second camera and a second speaker in the air form factor. Think about it… once they can use that battery technology will they still want to be shipping thick and heavy iPhones? I don’t think so.

So the lineup in a year or two could be:

1. Base “e” model
2. iPhone Air (with current limitations gone)
3. iPhone Pro
4. iPhone Fold

This lineup would fit in well with their other product lines (iPad, Mac).

"A rising tide lifts all boats."

Your theory is assumes other iPhone models won't get SiC. And there is a satiable amount of battery life consumers want. After that, they will be satisfied. But that's not how it works.

People are not buying iPhone Air because it compares poorly against other models in the lineup, not because they think 27h is too low.

After SiC, the difference in battery life across all models will still be the same. A second camera will still reduce battery life, making the gap larger. The question still remains: why pay $999 for less battery life?

1761268437754.jpeg
 
"A rising tide lifts all boats."

Your theory is assumes other iPhone models won't get SiC. And there is a satiable amount of battery life consumers want. After that, they will be satisfied. But that's not how it works.

People are not buying iPhone Air because it compares poorly against other models in the lineup, not because they think 27h is too low.

After SiC, the difference in battery life across all models will still be the same. A second camera will still reduce battery life, making the gap larger. The question still remains: why pay $999 for less battery life?

View attachment 2571854
Yah the value proposition is poor when you have those objectives stats. I just think about my sister who really wants a pro and doesn’t go on macrumors. She wants the “best camera” and only buys a phone every few years so it’s a pro (despite my argument).
 
Yes, I think there will be.

There were two minis, and three pluses. Even with poor sales, they keep the form factor around for more than one year to try to get the most out of the engineering and design. It won't be warranted based on sales, but they will almost certainly make at least one more version of it (maybe two).
This is likely Apple doing an A/B test. Do people prefer design or utility?

Utility will likely win and let them know that whatever they have planned for the future cannot come at the expense of the core user experience.
 
Pure speculation of collected rumors, but maybe 9to5 is right. Will be exiting to wait a year now.
 
Wild how wrong so many of you are.

Yes there will absolutely be an iPhone Air next year and for years to come.

It’s only going to get better in future generations.

Eventually it will catch up and replace the vanilla iPhone line.
 
Why did the iPhome mini fail? It was too small and not enough people wanted a phone that small. How do you fix that flaw? Well, you can’t, you have to make it bigger. So they discontinued it.

Why is the air struggling? Three reasons: 1. One camera 2. One speaker 3. To a lesser extent than those, battery.

How do you fix those? See my post above. Move to silicon-carbide battery. Now you’ve got incredible battery life, and space in the case for the 2nd camera and speaker. And the same great form factor.

Apple has clearly spent a ton of money and time to design and manufacture the Air. I don’t think they will throw that away when the only problems with the form factor can be easily addressed .

I could be wrong of course. But I think they would be foolish not to iterate on this design when the remaining issues are not difficult to solve. They’ve already done the hard part.
 
I think this year’s Air is the first draft of something that will become more significant as time goes on.
 
Will br interesting to see where this ends up. Personally I get the feeling there won’t be another Air, but the next regular iPhones which will launch in early 2027 will be inspired by it and will be its successor. Think something similar looking to the Air, a little thicker, 6.3 inch screen, and two cameras.
 
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Apple Insider reported today about an investment bank's contrary opinion noted to its investors.
 
I reckon they’ll be an Air 2 with some upgrades. But unless that sells well that will be the end of the line.
 
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Apparently the Air 2 will feature a second camera. Which will be a 48MP ultrawide unit mounted horizontally not vertically.

 
Apparently the Air 2 will feature a second camera. Which will be a 48MP ultrawide unit mounted horizontally not vertically.

That's great news cause I wont have to upgrade next year. Now if they add the 8x telephoto then Ill have to get an Air 2.
 
Given the close proximity of all the internal components in the Air’s camera plateau, adding another lens will be tricky! They can’t make the camera bump any bigger 🤔
 
Couple of other rumours about the Air 2. It will be using the C2 chip and feature a new thermal design whatever that means.
 
Just wondered after what seems to have happened with the S25 Edge whether we’ll get an iPhone Air 2. Also wonder if we do, if we’ll have to wait a couple of years for it. Hence why it doesn’t have a number, so it would be more like the old SE models with more irregular updates.
Due to the poor sales and reduced production, Apple will probably have to rethink the Air in some ways.
  1. Add a 2nd camera
  2. Bigger battery
  3. Stereo speakers
  4. Go for a better design that allows better heat dissipation, so probably move to aluminium.
There is far too much compromise in the current iteration of the Air, it is more akin to an iPhone 16e right now with a Pro chip and people are voting overwhelmingly with their wallets for the Pros.

I hope they do not cancel the Air as they can still do a lot with the iPhone Air brand if they can just get the price+spec ratio correct.
 
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Yikes so the iPhone Air drives traffic to the store, people try it and decide they prefer going for either a base iPhone or going all out and getting a Pro.

Key part of the article, makes me wonder what the return rate on the iPhone Air is, it must be quite high when people begin realising they paid premium but didn’t get that:
He found it hard to have speakerphone calls and listen to music. And the photos he took at his early October wedding came out noticeably worse than ones his brother took on a new iPhone 17 Pro.

“The performance wasn’t quite there. Across the board they’re sacrificing all these things,” said Purdy. The Air was very pleasurable to hold and impressed his friends, but didn’t work as his primary device, he said.

Back to the original point, it seems a lot of people did go try the Air, debunking the thinking that “people still need to go try it”, seems the traffic came for the Air but then the money went to the Pros…:
The research firm’s consumer surveys found that 29% of U.S. iPhone buyers in the September quarter bought one of the new iPhone 17 models, a big uptick compared with last year when 20% of U.S. iPhone buyers bought a new iPhone 16. This year, there was great interest in the Pro and Pro Max models, the firm said, but the Air got little traction.

“The Air was a marketing hit rather than a sales hit,” said Nabila Popal, an analyst with research firm IDC. It “created a buzz around the launch that we haven’t seen in years.”
 
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