Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone Air The psychology of the iPhone Air crash outs

Joseph C said:

This is a very good video which discusses the philosophical question about phones which iPhone Air has brought up. Even if you don't watch the whole thing, the words in the first 50 seconds sum it up perfectly:

"A high-end phone weighs a little more than 200 g. It has three cameras, maybe even more, and a huge screen, massive battery, and a powerful processor. It's heavy, and it's way too big to really fit into any of your pockets. But phones weren't always like that.

The one you had maybe 12 or 13 years ago, it had a screen half that size, only one camera, and it was light and small enough to slip into any pocket. It was awesome. So, how did we get here where your options are big or bigger? Has all the extra stuff crammed into our phones been worth it?

And if you could go back to a simpler, lighter phone, would you do it? Or would it be too hard to let go of the things we've gotten used to? That's the thousand question asked by one very thin device, the iPhone Air."


Recommend giving it a full watch. It's a balanced take more people should take heed of which doesn't take a side.
Click to expand...
I watched it earlier, a nice balanced review
 
eyoungren said:
Since I joined this forum, users with an identity complex attached to the iPhone have always been here. Once, the idea that the iPhone is a tool began to be professed, a lot of them went underground - but the mentality is still there.

What's interesting is when you encounter this mentality and then demand to know what capacity of iPhone they bought, they either refuse to answer or change the subject. Since Apple stopped putting the capacity size of the iPhone on the back, this has allowed them to hide the fact that all they have is the base model capacity - while they tout they have the best iPhone.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by capacity? Storage space? It doesn’t really matter in any other sense than practical use, right? If there are two identical models, for example two iPhone Pro Maxes, completely the same otherwise, but one has more storage, no sane person would think that the one with more storage is a better phone, right? Everything else is exactly the same in terms of specs. It’s just about how much space the user actually needs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: aperfectcircle
JPack said:
We know.

Production numbers according to Sina supplier checks:

▪️iPhone Air accounts for approximately 10% of total production
▪️iPhone 17 base model accounts for 25% of total production
▪️iPhone 17 Pro accounts for 25% of total production
▪️iPhone 17 Pro Max accounts for 40% of total production

#海外iPhoneAir销量超低##曝苹果内部不看... 来自新浪科技 - 微博

【#海外iPhoneAir销量超低##曝苹果内部不看好iPhoneAir销量#】虽然国内的 iPhone Air 因为 eSIM 虚拟卡问题遭到延期发布，但美国等地区的 iPhone Air 依然是和 iPhone 17 系列一同进行了预售。#iPhone18Pro已打样...
weibo.com weibo.com
Click to expand...

Very doubtful this is accurate. Who is the source of these numbers and what is their reliability ? Anyone can make claims on the internet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dca100
sk1ski1 said:
Very doubtful this is accurate. Who is the source of these numbers and what is their reliability ? Anyone can make claims on the internet.
Click to expand...
Also I think we all know the Air is going to perform much better when people hold it in hand, in store - and also likely to be a word of mouth sleeper success as people see their friends using it (and, from the sounds of it, praising it).

It’s an unknown quantity at this stage so there’s no surprise the preorder levels are lower. Not indicative of how successful it will be over the coming year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Christopher Kim and sk1ski1
I think it’s weird that people who want the iPhone Air are this insecure about it. Who are you trying to convince with these threads?
 
attohs said:
I think it’s weird that people who want the iPhone Air are this insecure about it. Who are you trying to convince with these threads?
Click to expand...
I’m not insecure whatsoever about it. Repeatedly stated all three lines in the iPhone range this year are extremely strong, and I’m still on the fence as to whether I’ll swap my Air out for a Pro in the first few weeks myself if I miss the camera features.

The thread is critiquing the people who don’t want the iPhone Air, either because it lacks the pro features they want (or for whatever other reason), being obsessively insecure and vociferously vocal about its mere existence as a third option.
 
  • Like
Reactions: aperfectcircle and fatTribble
sk1ski1 said:
Very doubtful this is accurate. Who is the source of these numbers and what is their reliability ? Anyone can make claims on the internet.
Click to expand...

Sina is the largest media company in China. All iPhones are preloaded with Weibo app. If you switch to a Chinese keyboard, the app shows up.
 
Honestly this kind of post is exactly why I’m here. The kind of obscure hair splitting and theorising/analysing that my friends would plead with me stop talking about in real life out of sheer boredom. You’re totally right, I’ve gone through the same thing at time in this decision too. Apple are absolute masters at this
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: Christopher Kim, LionTeeth and Joseph C
JPack said:
Sina is the largest media company in China. All iPhones are preloaded with Weibo app. If you switch to a Chinese keyboard, the app shows up.
Click to expand...

How would an App developer have the knowledge of Apple’s supply chain model ratio production? Apple surely wouldn’t give it to them. There is no need for them to know. This makes absolutely no sense. If this post even came from Sina. Plus this would only pertain to China. Where they can’t even sell the Air yet due to eSIM regulations. Highly doubtful on all accounts.
 
Sami13496 said:
What do you mean by capacity? Storage space? It doesn’t really matter in any other sense than practical use, right? If there are two identical models, for example two iPhone Pro Maxes, completely the same otherwise, but one has more storage, no sane person would think that the one with more storage is a better phone, right? Everything else is exactly the same in terms of specs. It’s just about how much space the user actually needs.
Click to expand...
And I totally agree with you.

But way back when, owning the latest iPhone model was used as a club against other forum members. "See how much better I am than you, I HAVE THE NEW IPHONE AND YOU DON'T!!!!"

Ultimately though, this mentality (IMO) is about money. "I'm better than you are because I have the money to buy the newest iPhone and you don't. Because if you did, you'd have one already."

So, asking them which capacity they bought would usually raise their hackles and turn the entire conversation hostile - because although they purported to be better than everyone else in having more money, they couldn't afford the higher capacity models. It exposed them for their hypocrisy and they didn't like it.

Not one of them I ever dealt with used your reasoning (which, again I agree with) to argue back. They just got hostile and defensive whenever I asked the question about the capacity they sprang for.

I mean - if it's about money and you showing off about how much you spent, wouldn't you have spent big for the highest capacity so you can further show off? If you were actually better than the other person?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sami13496 and fatTribble
eyoungren said:
I only disagree with you on ONE point. The model of iPhone you are describing is not the Pro, it's the Pro Max. Bigger with the Pro features is better. /s ;)

IMO.

- Comment from an iPhone 11 Pro Max owner.
Click to expand...
Yep. The pro max has always been the phone I see people obsessed with image using. It’s like an oversized handbag. Got to have the latest big one to post photos of food on instagram (do people still do that?)

The air is still a big phone though so it will be interesting to see how that split happens I suspect men may choose to pro max over the air. And vice versa. There is still the image of the pro max showing off you have to money to afford it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyoungren
sk1ski1 said:
How would an App developer have the knowledge of Apple’s supply chain model ratio production? Apple surely wouldn’t give it to them. There is no need for them to know. This makes absolutely no sense. If this post even came from Sina. Plus this would only pertain to China. Highly doubtful on all accounts.
Click to expand...

It's a multi-billion dollar media company. They have all sorts of divisions, one of them is reporting tech news.

Sina is equivalent to something like CNBC reporting news.

Only pertain to China? Right... let's not kid ourselves.

There are so many dependencies on China. For example, YUTO Packaging is the sole supplier of the boxes for Apple. YUTO owns factories in China, India, and Vietnam. Just having contacts at YUTO would give someone the global production ratio for iPhone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheRdungeon
Wanted797 said:
Yep. The pro max has always been the phone I see people obsessed with image using. It’s like an oversized handbag. Got to have the latest big one to post photos of food on instagram (do people still do that?)

The air is still a big phone though so it will be interesting to see how that split happens I suspect men may choose to pro max over the air. And vice versa. There is still the image of the pro max showing off you have to money to afford it.
Click to expand...
To be honest, I do go for the PM - or whatever model will be the largest size whenever I am upgrading. But that is solely because I prefer bigger size phones, not because it's a status symbol for me. If some year, the largest iPhone model is not a Pro, I will be buying it. Because I don't need/necessarily want the Pro features. I just want a large sized phone. If I could get the iPhone SE in the size of the Pro Max or bigger, I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

But yeah, it got appropriated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fatTribble
Joseph C said:
For years, the iPhone Pro model has carried a dual crown: not only the most powerful iPhone each year, but also the most desirable, most premium and the one you buy if you want the best of everything.

The iPhone Air has arrived this year to disrupt that hierarchy. Suddenly, the phone that looks and feels like the jewel of the line-up isn’t the Pro at all. It’s the Air.

The Pro is the powerful beast with the huge battery, built like a tank; while the Air is the beautiful object, impossibly thin with polished titanium edges. No longer do you get both the most power and best, most premium design in one device. You have to choose.

That shift is creating a kind of cognitive dissonance for people who define their choice of device as a reflection of their status. The psychology of it is fascinating.

IMO, many Pro buyers don’t actually use most of the Pro features. They’re not shooting in Apple Log or editing with big 4K/8K workflows on the go. They just want to know they have the "top" phone, the one no one else can one up.

But now the definition of "top" has splintered: raw performance and battery life vs. design desirability. The Air has stolen half of the crown - it wins on industrial design.

The defensive behaviour is all over this forum and the internet at large. Endless benchmarks, heat tests, nitpicking every compromise the Air has, all (I would argue) to soothe the ego. "See? I made the right choice. My Pro is better."

And in that scramble, they cling to the loudest 'pick me' tech reviewers: the ones obsessed with stress tests, performative throttling, and manufactured torture scenarios, because it feeds the narrative they need to believe.

This is becoming more about identity, and the unease of realising the "best iPhone" no longer comes in one neat package.

For the first time EVER, the most powerful iPhone is not the one with the most premium design.

It's really interesting to me, and makes this year's the most interesting iPhone launch in years.
Click to expand...
Totally. People get so identified that challenging their choice for best phone/OS/whatever becomes like insulting their mother. It's nothing new really, this is the real story of basically every squabble I've witnessed on this forum over the past 10+ years. And now it's popcorn time all over again with the release of the Air :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: dca100
The Air is all about the form factor .... proving that a powerful (Pro-class) device can survive in a thin body.

It's a marketplace experiment. No negativity implied. Apple has hit it out of the park with the Air... rather than aiming lower, they aimed higher.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dca100, fatTribble and sk1ski1
Sami13496 said:
What do you mean by capacity? Storage space? It doesn’t really matter in any other sense than practical use, right? If there are two identical models, for example two iPhone Pro Maxes, completely the same otherwise, but one has more storage, no sane person would think that the one with more storage is a better phone, right? Everything else is exactly the same in terms of specs. It’s just about how much space the user actually needs.
Click to expand...

Actually...Prores recording to internal storage is not available on Prores-compatible iPhone generations with 128 gigs of storage: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/109041

You can still record to an external drive via USB 3 on those 128-gig models, but just a little silly example.


In general I think the iPhone Air sits in a weird place, much like all other -Air variants of apple products.

MacBook Air - Entry level Mac laptop
iPad Air - Mid-range iPad that's a little nicer than the base, but not as nice as the Pro
iPhone Air - The screen and RAM of a Pro, the processer of a 17, the same primary shooter as the 17 line, new body

The iPhone Air is kinda weird because it's a new iPhone without a number, has the same number of cameras as the iPhone 16e, and is a mishmash of features from the base and the pro that make it tough for tech nerds to choose; do they want power or new design?

Personally I would get the Air if I was getting a new iPhone, although I've only ever been a Pro user.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dca100, Sami13496 and TheRdungeon
C. Robert said:
My 16 pro max is black and thats as pro as it gets. I dont have an issue with orange but when I play it out in my head, it's hard to see people using it. I dont think ive seen anything in orange at work.
Click to expand...
If I got another Pro Max, I'd go blue and still likely a black or colored case. Certainly not Fanta orange. Orange is the color of the season, I personally feel it will grow out of style quickly
 
  • Like
Reactions: Petey07
welles13 said:
it's the pro max people who are desperate to explain why they needed the heaviest and ugliest iPhone ever made
Click to expand...

. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I honestly love how the Pro Max look. I think all 3 phone have attractive qualities.

ProMax: I love the utilitarian design of it such as I do the Apple Watch Ultra.

17: Has the best Colors. My faves are the blue and Green

Air: Sleek, Slim
 
  • Like
Reactions: fatTribble
eyoungren said:
What's interesting is when you encounter this mentality and then demand to know what capacity of iPhone they bought, they either refuse to answer or change the subject. Since Apple stopped putting the capacity size of the iPhone on the back, this has allowed them to hide the fact that all they have is the base model capacity - while they tout they have the best iPhone.
Click to expand...
Arguably, those choosing the base capacity are based.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back