Apple has been working on a new model for the upcoming iPhone 17 series: the iPhone 17 Air. However renowned industry insider Mark Gurman says in his newsletter Power On that this model is unlikely to “set any sales records” and that most customers will still get the Pro.
Apple has had a problem with making a fourth model of its flagship phones appeal to consumers for a long time. While the base model sells for its price, the Pro model sells for its features and the Pro Max sells for its size, a fourth model has struggled for years.
There was the iPhone mini, which many users now wish would come back, that sold the least out of the entire lineup. Apple replaced it with the iPhone Plus that we know of today but that has also sold the least out of all the models. So now the company wants to experiment with a new approach which targets the demographic that cares heavily about aesthetics.
As such the iPhone 17 Air is going to be an extremely slim phone by modern standards. It will likely be more expensive than the Plus model that it will be replacing but it will also look quite elegant if leaks are to be believed.
A render of the upcoming iPhone 17 Air. | Image credit — Fpt.
And while I think that the Air is the most promising fourth model that Apple has thought of yet, Gurman thinks that it will still lose to the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. He predicts that the iPhone 17 Air will perform better than the mini and Plus models and be a success for Apple in the long run but it will not overtake the Pro models.
Apple isn’t the only company that thought of introducing a variant to its flagship line that caters to slimness. Samsung — Apple’s largest rival in the smartphone space — plans to release the Galaxy S25 Edge later this year. In fact, if everything goes according to plan, Samsung will release the Galaxy S25 Edge before the iPhone 17 Air.
Whether these slim phones are actually as popular as these two manufacturers are hoping remains to be seen. I think that they’ll see a lot more success when both companies adopt newer and denser batteries so that the reduction of space doesn’t affect how long the phones last.
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Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
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