iPhone Air Sales Are So Bad That Apple's Delaying the Next-Generation Version

[reden]

Releasing two flag-ship devices of the same category at the same time, and making one slightly worse than the other is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen Apple do. Tim Cook really shouldn't be CEO anymore.

 

[Johnny Steps]

I knew this was bound to happen. I think seeing how poorly the iPhone 12/13 Mini did, you could probably make an educated guess on how the iPhone Air was going to do. Despite everything, I have been loving my iPhone Air. It’s great using it completely naked and I don’t miss using an iPhone Pro model at all. This experience, however, is not at all representative of what consumers truly want and that’s value over luxury for a phone and that totally makes sense.

 

[staypuftforums]

Oh no, what will Apple do?

Give me a break. In other words, they are going to have higher average selling prices because so many more Pros will be sold.

Who cares.

What an unusual reaction.

 

[EvilEvil]

Hot take: Apple should just go back to a one SKU lineup and make the iPhone Air Pro Max the default yearly phone.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Keep making Airs.

Keep making Minis.

Put them on 2-3 year refresh cycles and keep folks on all ends of the spectrum engaged and happily in the ecosystem.

It's amazing how little a 4 TRILLION dollar company can seem to do (or wants to do).

Not everyone wants the same iPhone.
This is not the Borg collective.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Apple does not need to "rethink the design" because of any flaw in the design, which is solid. Apple screwed up the marketing and badly overpriced the iPhone Air with its one camera and one speaker going against the much cheaper iPhone 17 with two cameras and two speakers. Hence limited sales. Some marketing manager did a very bad job.

What to do now is a challenge. It is always easier to lower prices (which is no doubt why they priced it at $1k to start), but now redesign may be needed to make v2 look like a successful product after the price is chopped, which IMO it always was but killed by overpricing. Some b-school will make a case study out of this.

 

[goodcow]

Update the mini, so I can finally upgrade.

 

[antonrg]

Apple, ah Apple, give us the mini. Just one model every 5 or so years. Mini sold better than Air, it seems. So c'mon Apple. C'mon.

 

[PhilaScott]

I'm sad that this product was not better received. Although I got a 17Pro Max (... a decision I made at least a year ago...), I played with this phone and think it's beautiful and really easy to hold in your hand. I was really surprised how light and comfortable it feels in the hand. I think it would have done better with more cameras.

 

[klasma]

So, between the mini, plus and the air. Which one sold the most?

From the scarce information over the years, it seems that the Plus sold slightly less worse than the mini, and the Air appears to not be selling better than the Plus. I’m curious about the Air vs. the mini.

 

[NativeMac]

Hear me out, stereo speakers. The biggest missed opportunity on this device two camera lenses and stereo speakers. Had this device had those, it would have been a run away hit. Also not having the regular iPhone 17 also being sold haha 🤣

 

[vbctv]

They don’t need to delay it. They just need to fix the shortcomings of the first one. It needs a second camera, mmWave, stereo speakers, and a lower price.

So you want less battery life? Because if you own an Air like I do, you'll know that the camera area which holds everything gets really hot, meaning the empty space is probably needed, cramping in a 2nd camera could lead to major issues with components failing because of the heat and not enough airflow. Add in an mmwave antenna or stereo speakers and now you're taking away battery space. Remember the USB-C port is 3D printed so it can fit and can have a larger battery than a normal USB-C port.
I don't see battery technology changing alot between this year and next year, at least not getting cheaper for a bigger thinner battery in any case.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Here we go again. lol
"Add a speaker and a camera!"

That's the iPhone 17 folks.

 

[Danie_Morrow]

They leave with the Pro model because it's more expensive model, and pricier means better to many. It's what is recommended to them by sales people and pushed on the front pages of carrier internet storefronts.

Coworker of mine has a 17 Pro Max; she bought after losing her previous model on a trip about a week ago... She has no idea what model she had previously, and mis-identified her current model as a 16.

iPhones in the US have no cachet anymore once you're out of highschool. They did, but now anyone and everyone can get one easily.

Okay, I get that. I think anyone who works and uses a phone for work can afford a $1,000 phone, so of course I believe you that the prestige is gradually disappearing in the US. I'm from Central Europe, where the iPhone is still both a negative and positive magnet. There's a lot of love and hate, but I believe that Apple is still a love brand and that many people buy it because of marketing and want the best from Apple and what's advertised. But if you look at this forum, lots of people here write that the Air is expensive, etc. But in the end, it's not about the price, it's what they sell you. As you write, they sell you the most expensive one in the store, which is the Pro, but I still think that the other side of the coin is still the part of people who want the product they see in the ad. The Air is actually a product for Apple fans, for a niche population who want beautiful design and want to enjoy the latest technology in a different body, and obviously there aren't many of them. As I wrote, it's not about the battery or the stereo, people wouldn't buy it anyway because the masses aren't interested in that at all.

 

[Donkey Man]

Definitely the best iPhone I’ve ever had.

 

[JPack]

From the scarce information over the years, it seems that the Plus sold slightly less worse than the mini, and the Air appears to not be selling better than the Plus. I’m curious about the Air vs. the mini.

The Plus was likely selling quite better than mini, especially given we got three years of it.

We can only imagine how well a 17 Plus would sell, but it would clearly bring down the ASP. That's probably one of the reasons it was cut - as a threat to Pro Max. Had the Air been successful, it would have been a miracle, raising ASP and margins.

 

[SebCohen]

The regular iPhone should be as thin as the Air WITH same battery life, WITH two cameras and the regular iPhone and its thickness should be the cheap iPhone one or two generations behind and one camera.

 

[pdaholic]

It’s interesting, I dismissed this device until I held my coworker’s Air the other day. Like having a Max sized phone with the weight of a regular phone, and incredibly thin. I’ve been debating getting one. Articles like this are discouraging.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

I don’t get it. If it weren’t for the Air, I wouldn’t have upgraded. For me, the screen is a bit too big and it’s too heavy, but otherwise it’s fantastic. It feels like a device that might share some heritage with the iPod.

Why the low sales?

Could it have been the onslaught of negative reviews of a device that mostly exceeds the specs of previous generations? Even comments in this thread are pointing out the battery life and single camera. I have yet to have a problem with taking a picture and I get a solid minimum of 36 hours.

It seems like people are afraid of change more than anything else. And, frankly, they allow career “reviewers” to sway their opinions far too easily. These people get paid to seem genuine to get views and engagement, not to give you honest real-world-use opinions.

Is it because people are so reliant on their cell phones to accomplish daily tasks that they need even more powerful devices? I mean, if this is what they think, they’ve been duped. Phones are so advanced now that even a five year old phone is more than capable for practically everything.

Is it all about the price? I don’t think it is. If so, why would they be buying the Pro phone? Or, I should say, why are people bothering to upgrade at all? I think it’s more about peer pressure than anything else. Given the choice, most people will take the safe bet and not risk the ridicule of a device that’s been reviewed as insufficient.

What sucks is that this likely going to minimize the risks Apple is going to take in the future. For a large number of people, these risk-taking devices are some of the best Apple has produced. And for a lot of Apple users, this is a reason we gravitated towards the company - because they explicitly were not Microsoft or Dell or Sony.

Yes, it is about the price when the iPhone 17 has 2 speakers and 2 cameras for $200 less. The iPhone Air is a superb device, but the supply/demand curve and high price meant low sales volume.

 

[iHorseHead]

They should just cancel it instead, I doubt the sales of the Air 2 will be any better

Didn't Samsung cancel theirs?

 

[foqus]

I'm sure Apple leadership will believe the low sales are because they aren't thin enough...smh. They seem to think that a phone as slim as a credit card is what everyone wants. NO ONE wants that, Apple!!!

 

[Admiral Fart]

So you want less battery life? Because if you own an Air like I do, you'll know that the camera area which holds everything gets really hot, meaning the empty space is probably needed, cramping in a 2nd camera could lead to major issues with components failing because of the heat and not enough airflow. Add in an mmwave antenna or stereo speakers and now you're taking away battery space. Remember the USB-C port is 3D printed so it can fit and can have a larger battery than a normal USB-C port.
I don't see battery technology changing alot between this year and next year, at least not getting cheaper for a bigger thinner battery in any case.

Everything you say is correct, and also show the reasons why the iPhone Air should never have been released. Too many compromises. The only compromise for the iPhone mini was battery life and everyone knows how that turned out.

 

[OliOliOliOli]

Do the same with the power of a pro max and I Will buy it!

 

[Kirkster]

iPhone Mini Pro would sell like hotcakes. The pro camera package in a small phone would be an instant buy for me.

 

[partyboy4357]

The thin, light iPhone Air sold so poorly that Apple has decided to delay the launch of the next-generation iPhone Air that was scheduled to come out alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, reports The Information.

Apple initially planned to release a new iPhone Air in fall 2026, but now that's not going to happen.

Since the iPhone Air launched in September, there have been reports of poor sales and manufacturing cuts. Apple's supply chain has scaled back shipments and production. Apple supplier Foxconn has reportedly dismantled all but one and a half of its production lines for the iPhone Air, and all production is expected to be stopped at the end of the month. Luxshare, another supplier, stopped production at the end of October.

Apple was counting on the novel look of the device to spark interest, because it features the first substantial design update that we've seen to the iPhone lineup since the iPhone X added Face ID and an all-display design in 2017. Creating a super thin 5.6mm iPhone required compromises, so the iPhone Air has a smaller battery and a single-lens rear camera, but it still has a high price tag. Apple priced it starting at $999, and that appears to be more than customers are willing to pay for style without substance. The iPhone Air is only $100 cheaper than the $1,099 iPhone 17 Pro, which has a triple-lens rear camera and much better battery life.

Apple has not been able to land on a fourth iPhone that will sell well alongside the standard iPhone and Pro iPhone models. Apple experimented with a smaller 5.4-inch iPhone mini that suffered from disappointing sales, then moved on to the larger "Plus" iPhone that served as a more affordable version of the Pro Max. Plus models also failed, leading to the iPhone Air.

Apple has already been planning for a split launch for the iPhone starting with the iPhone 18 models. The iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone are planned for fall 2026, while the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e will be held until early 2027. It's possible that the next-generation iPhone Air will come out alongside the iPhone 18 in the spring.

Apple has been working on a second-generation version of the iPhone Air with a lighter weight, vapor chamber cooling, and a larger battery capacity, but Apple could rethink the design.

Article Link: iPhone Air Sales Are So Bad That Apple's Delaying the Next-Generation Version

iPhone air…for narcissistic people who prefer form over function. 1 camera, small battery, 1 speaker = trash. Only took em 2 months to figure out that only a handful of dolts blindly justify this purchase.