It seems almost no one wants the iPhone Air – here’s why

Apple iPhone Air Review
(Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

  • A report suggests there's "virtually no consumer demand" for the iPhone Air
  • We're also hearing that orders for it have dropped to "end of production" levels
  • Given its high price and lacking specs, this isn't overly surprising

It has been clear for a while that the iPhone Air hasn’t exactly been a major sales success for Apple, but the situation might be even worse than it previously appeared, as a new report claims orders for this device have dropped to “end of production” levels.

This is according to Nikkei Asia (via NotebookCheck), and is despite the phone having only recently launched in China, so it seems the iPhone Air is no more popular there than elsewhere.

In similarly bleak news for the phone, research from KeyBanc Capital Markets (via Investing.com) found that there’s “virtually no consumer demand for the iPhone Air”, all of which suggests this could be a bigger failure than Apple’s abandoned Plus and mini lines – which also weren’t exactly sales sensations.

Apple iPhone Air Review

Being slim isn't enough (Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

Apple should have seen this coming

Yet none of this is really surprising, as the iPhone Air sacrifices a lot, while also costing a lot. Its USP is simply being slim, yet unless you get it in your hands, that’s hard to really appreciate, and even then, it’s not as if the rest of the iPhone 17 line is particularly chunky.

And to achieve that slimness, the iPhone Air is stuck with just one rear camera and worse battery life than its siblings in the iPhone 17 line, all while costing a lot more than the base iPhone 17 (which has two rear cameras) and not that much less than the iPhone 17 Pro (which has three).

Some people clearly love the iPhone Air, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that this would be a hard sell for a lot of people.

Still, the rest of the iPhone 17 line seems to be making up for it, with the base and Pro models reportedly proving extremely popular. But if you were hoping for a new iPhone Air next year, we suspect you'll be out of luck.


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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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