What if… customers don’t actually want super-skinny smartphones? A new report out of Asia reckons that Apple’s iPhone Air will step back a little to make room for the smartphones everyone knows and, apparently, loves. Production is being scaled back “drastically”, with the other iPhone lineups seeing a bump in production to compensate.
Produced by iPhone Air
Following the news that Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Edge probably isn’t happening, a change attributed to the S25 Edge only selling 1.3 million devices, it seems that hyper-skinny smartphones just aren’t what the world wants right now. Which is fine, since the world absolutely never needed them.
Apple will keep its projected target of 85 to 90 million smartphones in place, but it will drop the iPhone Air’s output — previously slated at about 10% to 15% of that total — to a significantly lower level. Plans for the iPhone Air have dropped nearly to “end of production” levels.
Instead, the iPhone 17 will see increased numbers (up by 5 million), with the iPhone 17 Pro also having a greater number of units produced.
The report doesn’t give specific reasons why the Air is having its brakes pumped, but sales figures suggest that the phone is selling in similar numbers to the iPhone 16 Plus. Not historically, mind you. Similar numbers to the phone as it’s selling right now. If you’re Apple, you’re not going to overproduce something that is seeing the same demand as a last-generation iPhone.
