Next Year's Slim iPhone 17 Could Be an 'iPhone Air'

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Nonsense.
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.

To paraphrase an old political zinger: I know Vpro, HPs, etc... and iPhone is no Vpro, HPs, etc. Make an iPhone that folds or rolls or is shaped like a crescent or parallelogram and the iPhone fans would gush and praise it like the second coming. This is not some accessory or fringe/niche creation... this is the core device from which all Apple things flow.

But we can just wait & see. I'm confident that eventually an Apple Fold will come... that it will be priced shockingly high... and that "we" will suddenly see many uses for a foldable iPhone as evidenced by the wave of "shut up and take my money" that will immediately follow. After all, the vast majority of "we" once spent a couple of years pounding away at phablet-sized phones as "abominations!" and similar while Apple clung to 3.5" as perfection... and then 4" as perfection. And when Apple flipped, "we" flipped right with them as if "we" never wrote such stuff. Soon it was "how did we ever get by with those 'puny' screens?" that not so long before we referred to as 'perfect.'

 

[Rogifan]

Is there anyone at Apple who can come up with ideas besides making things thinner?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

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.

What the world most likely wants is "same great iPhone, much lower price" to compete with quality alternative phones priced much lower than iPhone.

And Apple is going to try "thinner" and stuff like different colors to see if that will scratch the itch.

 

[ThailandToo]

I want more battery life than this would allow!!!

 

[P K]

I wish MacRumors and other sites wouldn't just parrot that Jon Prosser was the first to come up with the idea that a potential iPhone Slim might be marketed as an iPhone Air, or that the idea was anything groundbreaking. Reddit has posts from a month ago with folks surmising that the Air could be what the Slim is marketed as, and other tech pundits and podcasters have been doing the same (including ATP, which had a long segment about this the day before Prosser posted his video). From what I can tell, all of this is pure speculation, with no real evidence or "leak" behind it. I think the concept makes sense, but it's not like Prosser was coming up with a brilliant idea before anyone else, or that he based it on any type of inside knowledge. And based on the Gurman quotes I've seen thus far about this, it doesn't sound like he's doing anything different - just theorizing that this could be marketed as the Air with no real reporting otherwise, which is what folks have already been doing from at least a month ago.

 

[CarAnalogy]

SE, base, Air, Pro, Pro Max/Ultra

The progression makes sense, I'm just not sure there's room in there for an Air.

I kind of miss the days when the iPhone was the iPhone and it was the same one everyone else had.

It did make some sense to have a nicer model and a less expensive model. But it seems like this is going too far.

And they still aren't addressing the very vocal segment of the market that wants a smaller phone in every dimension, not just thinner. The current base iPhone (and presumably SE though I've never held one) is already remarkably light. And it's never occurred to me once that it needs to be thinner.

 

[citysnaps]

Makes sense and is a smart move on Apple's part. Some people just want a thinner/lighter iPhone.

It will add nicely to the 600,000 iPhone Apple manufactures and sells every day of the year.

 

[HylianKnight]

The name surprises no one.

 

[HylianKnight]

60hz screen, one camera, these will sell well to one person who buys it.

There will be a market for it. The problem will be the same problem Apple had with the Mini, and the “C”… Apple acts like every one of their phones should be the best selling phone, and that is not realistic. It’s nice to have a different set of products that appeal to different people. A lineup of iPhone, iPhone Air, and iPhone Pro would actually make a bit of sense.

 

[VisceralRealist]

I think we all knew they weren't going to call it "Slim".

The rumor that has made this forthcoming device so confounding was that it was supposedly going to cost more than the Pro Max, and thus be the flagship while also not being the flagship due to lower specs. I'm starting to think that price rumor was just wrong.

I've posted a lot about the "fourth option failure". I think they're going to keep throwing new options at the wall until something sticks. I'm not sure why they're so dedicated to having four models, when the fourth option rarely sells well, but maybe the "iPhone Air" will change everything. I guess we'll see.

 

[Art Mark]

This only makes sense if it does away with all external connectors.

 

[Chuckeee]

Well mostly thinner except for the camera bump.

I think a phone without a camera bump would be more enticing

 

[Seamaster]

Give us a new iPhone Mini or give us death!

 

[antonypg]

My daughter loves her iPhone Mini and really doesn't want a bigger phone, so it is a shame the Mini was discontinued. I myself am hoping for a iPhone Maxi, one that is twice as thick as a normal iPhone but gives me 3 times the battery life. The current push for thinner and thinner devices just seems a bit silly if it reduces battery life to unusable levels. I am fed up constantly having to carry chargers because my phone won't last the whole day.

 

[2low_tech]

Except "folding phones" are anything but slim, especially when folded.

You should check out some of the Chinese foldables (Xiaomi, Honro, etc), They are nearly as thin as an iphone pro max.

 

[HouseLannister]

Well I never thought "Slim" was a name, but Air or anything else is just guessing.

Reminder: Before the iPad launched, rumors were that it was going to be called iSlate.
Also, the Apple Watch was called the iWatch over a year before announcement (and some people still call it that).

 

[aero7]

lose the camera bump and we’ve got a deal.

 

[Le0M]

And how would they rename iCloud?

Apple Cloud, or simply: AC
XD

 

[aero7]

Is there anyone at Apple who can come up with ideas besides making things thinner?

If only iPhones were as light and thin as they once were. Still missing my iPhone 6. Or god forbid an iPhone without the increasingly hideous camera hump.

 

[redbeard331]

You should check out some of the Chinese foldables (Xiaomi, Honro, etc), They are nearly as thin as an iphone pro max.

That’s not fair though, I’m starting to feel like it’s the mid 2000’s again and we’ve got a bunch of dull mediocre phones here and the fun stuff is overseas.

 

[Le0M]

Beta testing for a foldable iPhone

Was thinking the same

 

[neuropsychguy]

If it's going to be really thin then I hope it's reinforced well, unless they want the thing snapping like a twig again.

Was that a problem with your older iPhones?

 

[derdante]

That sales pitch is awful. Launching a new high-tier model and having to go out there and say that it's lacking in specs? Kind of ridiculous.
Unless there is still something we're missing in regard to this model, this will sell as badly as the Mini and Plus did.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

the Air, because it will left only air in your pocket

 

[USB-Adapter]

As thin as the new iPad Pro (5.3 mm) with a big full-view bezelless display about 7.5” or even 8”, with no ports (magsafe and esim only) and with no notch (under display face id). That would be air enough for me to buy.