I still think Apple should have re-engineered the iPhone 13 mini into a 1 mm thicker phone to accommodate a bigger battery, kept Face ID, and just put in a single camera sensor in back for a new iPhone SE 4.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Next Year's Slim iPhone 17 Could Be an 'iPhone Air'
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
That's the air part: peer into the cash pocket of your wallet and what do you see?
Last edited:
I am sure Apples thought the same about the Mini and Plus devices
Yup, my wife has a 13 mini and doesn’t want anything bigger, yet the mini supposedly was a “commercial failure” which I call BS… Apple choice of models is just weird
The original MacBook Air cost considerably more than the base MacBook when it was released - $1799 vs. $1099 for a base MacBook, and had inferior specifications. But people enthusiastically bought it because of how impressively thin it was.
To be fair the difference between the chunky laptops of the mid-to-late 00's and the first generation MacBook Air are a bit more striking than any diet they can put an iPhone on, but there's still precedent for consumers paying more for less to make a style statement.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I'm doubting it... but if it is... I imagine two things:
- An eye-watering/wallet-emptying/credit-draining price 💰💰💰 AND
- Suddenly the Appleverse finding many ways to rationalize a folding device and many "problems" solved by the new Apple solution (and only the Apple solution).
On the one hand I love the return to product marketing that makes sense. A friend of mine recently got a new iPad Air and was very excited to show me how awesome and thin it was. I brought my M4 iPad Pro along to show share some holiday photos and he was stunned that the Air was thicker and heavier than the Pro - to the point where I think he regretted the purchase.
This has been a problem since Apple bottled the 2015 MacBook launch, which should clearly have been positioned as the new MacBook Air. I have doubts how they'll achieve this segmentation with the iPhone lineup though. They'd have to make something absurdly thin/light to make non-Pro buyers fork out the extra money, or make Pro users sacrifice the cameras/battery life for extra thinness.
I'd much rather they made another mini, which gives people way more choice than:
This has been a problem since Apple bottled the 2015 MacBook launch, which should clearly have been positioned as the new MacBook Air. I have doubts how they'll achieve this segmentation with the iPhone lineup though. They'd have to make something absurdly thin/light to make non-Pro buyers fork out the extra money, or make Pro users sacrifice the cameras/battery life for extra thinness.
I'd much rather they made another mini, which gives people way more choice than:
- Big cheap phone
- Big thin phone
- Big expensive phone
Your money will vanish into Thin Air
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
What Apple probably needs is: "Same great iPhone quality, much more competitive price."
What Apple will probably choose instead is: "Same great iPhone quality, more more profitable price."
Market share will then continue to dwindle... but they'll keep right on winning the "but who makes the most profitable phone?" contests... and "we" will keep on ridiculing how market share contests are measured if Apple is not achieving #1 AND then slinging that line so Apple can be #1 in SOME phone-related contest.
Last edited:
The iPad Air line lacks ProMotion which means the iPhone Air will like lose out on that too. It's one of those features that really should be on everything now, but Apple very astutely holds it back from anything but the most expensive models, because for those of us who care, it's a dealbreaker not to have it. Most of my family just can't tell but I won't go without it on an iDevice which means I'm stuck paying for the Pros.
Wonder how they're pricing this. Apple has phones at $800, $900, $1000, and $1200 as of now. Are they moving the small Pro up to $1100, leaving the Air at $1000?
Why do you call the reports about the Mini being a failure BS?
While we don’t have exact numbers, the reports have been that it didn’t even make up 5% of iPhone sales. And it’s not like it was less expensive to produce than the regular series, it literally had a higher PPI display than any other model they’ve produced before or since.
The issue was that people paying $700+ on a phone were not looking for small screens and small batteries.
The rumoured plan was to price this above the other models. This would be funny as all the Apple fanboys heads would explode trying to work out whether to get the most powerful model (Pro Max) or the most expensive model (Air)...
Let us not forget that Apple used to emphasis that each successive iPhone was the thinnest yet. iPhones started thicker than they are now, started getting thinner until reaching their thinnest for the 6, 6s, and 7, then started creeping back up.
For those who want this rumored display size, they aren't all going to be ok with the increased thickness (especially kept in tight pockets) and weight that usually accompanies a larger display, so I can see a market for large display, but thinner and lighter, which I think will skew towards females.
For those who want this rumored display size, they aren't all going to be ok with the increased thickness (especially kept in tight pockets) and weight that usually accompanies a larger display, so I can see a market for large display, but thinner and lighter, which I think will skew towards females.
Mannn... I just want the iPhone 17 Pro MINI. That's my dream phone.
I am so tired of this meaningless designation. Air doesn't say anything about the functionality. It was first used to highlight weight of a laptop. Now it is just used randomly. At least the iPhone Thin tells you something about the feature set.
Nonsense.the Appleverse finding many ways to rationalize a folding device and many "problems" solved by the new Apple solution (and only the Apple solution).
...as it is EVERY time.
Apple Vision Pro, HomePods, some of Apple services, even products like the AirPods Max have absolutely failed to grip the deeply invested Apple fandom.
Don’t get me wrong they have their fans, but they prove this whole “Apple could stick their logo on anything and people would buy it” narrative is complete bogus.
An iPhone Flip, especially if priced very high, has a very high probability of not catching on. Just like the Mini.
A lot of people wanted smaller and the Mini wasn't a hit. I haven't heard as many people asking for a thinner phone and I can't see how it would sell better than an iPhone Mini.