iPhone 17 Model Popularity

Pretty sad about this and I hope Apple continues the Air anyway. The Air was my favorite iPhone in the 17 series. It really feels like a completely new kind of device, as if you are only holding the display glass.

I think Apple nerfed the launch completely. It has one camera less than the base iPhone, shorter battery life, no DP-Alt support, but then it's priced $200 above the base iPhone. So, too expensive for the base iPhone crowd, to limited to the iPhone Pro crowd.

I reckon the Air is best viewed as a step towards the Duo. The Duo introduced significantly new hardware which would mean more opportunities for things to go wrong during production and during customer usage. There are some problems that only become known once the product is produced at scale, eg the paint problems on the first white iPhone and Antenna Gate. The Air allowed Apple to mitigate some of the risk of the Duo by producing some aspects of it at scale.

Yeah, but really? It could have been handled better. Liquid Glass, iPhone Air, which by the way, isn't to iPhone 17.... And now, [pick your OS] 27.2?

There's moving to where the puck is headed, and well, there's Apple. (BTW, who should have attribution to what I just said. Hint: He's been CEO - and more - of the company when he sadly passed away.)

Nowadays, Apple seems to believe that Xcode 27.2 should be "like" 27.0 except for... the developers? Apple also believes that 27.2 should be released before 27.1, or (you know what the rest of the world has been on) something like... 27.0.1? They JUST finished making all OS versioning be the same.....

Ah, got it. They control versioning, and it 27.1 that will contain the [pick your OS] everything related to iPhone Duo. Jeez....

Honestly the fact that the lead industrial designer for the iPhone Air, Abidur Chowdhury, immediately bolted for the door only 2 months after he introduced it in the keynote (!) should have been a major red flag.

But yeah, I'm also in the camp that the Air was basically a trial run for the Duo. I'd still like to see it get one more update with an ultrawide lens though.

As a proud owner of the original iPhone SE (no camera zit!), and also to a lesser degree of subsequent "smallest" (but still too big) models, I don't understand the appeal of the iPhone Air at all. It's got the most outrageous camera zit ever. It won't come even close to sitting flat on any surface.

What's the point of making something which is pretty thin all over, but chunky in a few awkward places? I don't even care about photo quality. I'll be paying a penalty every time I touch it for a feature I don't want. Or I have to stuff it in a big case to make it flat, and then it's not thin any more, which seemed like the whole point.

It would almost be worth putting up with it, if it were cheap, but it's the most expensive iPhone by a large margin. It seems like a tech demo, not a product that's good for the average user.

I think the explanation for these percentages is simpler than anyone is suggesting. 99% of people are not upgrading their phone every year. The performance has plateaued. They buy one every few years when they need to, and so they pay a little more because they know they're going to have it for a while.

"Apple; we include a Level app, build phones with perfectly straight edges, and then ensure there's a protuberance on every side, so there's no way the level can get a straight edge."

That Original SE remains the best iPhone case design.

@Tim I’m pretty sure that the bump on the Pro is at least as thick. What I like about the Air is that it is extremely nice and comfortable to hold. It is only 165g and since the display is larger than the base/Pro, the weight is also better distributed. It often feels like just holding the display glass.

The camera bump is not an issue at all, since it’s not where you typically hold the phone.

I went from a 17 Pro to the Air. The 17 Pro was nice, but the Air still wows me every time I pick it up.

"The camera bump is not an issue at all, since it’s not where you typically hold the phone."

OK, but what is the thinness for? Is it really to make it more comfortable to hold? I don't think thinner devices are easier to hold. My assumption was that thinness is about storage, like how easy it is to put it in a pocket, and there, the camera bump does matter.

I think Air's design is more polarizing than the Apple enthusiasts are willing to admit. There's a vocal group saying it's the best iPhone ever, but for others, me included, it's simply unappealing. It's too big to use single-handed and the weight distribution is worse than 17 or 17 pro. When I was picking up each model in the Apple Store last year, Air had the worst ergonomics. I genuinely prefer the base 17 over Air, just from the design standpoint, before taking the camera, price and the battery life into consideration.

I'll be that guy: I'd buy a hypothetical iPhone 17 mini in a heartbeat.

Some quick searching suggested iPhone 13 mini at around 3% of iPhone sales in 2022.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple keeps the iPhone Air around for a while, even if it continues to sell well below what the minis were able to achieve. Apple knows best, they keep telling me.

I have no interest in the Air because if I wanted to make those camera and battery tradeoffs in the name of form factor, I’d rather have a new mini or if going more brick in my pocket, the Duo

I hope they keep making the Air for those who like it, but also bring back the mini which felt more differentiated and loved.

Alas, not even the greatest hardware manufacturer on earth can apparently support one more size 🫩

@plume “OK, but what is the thinness for? Is it really to make it more comfortable to hold?”

For me, yes. I had the Pro and the Air in parallel for a while after I got the Air and every time I picked up the Pro it felt like a brick. But I only got that perception once I had the Air. From there it was hard to go back because the Air feels much better in hand. That said, I do miss the extra cameras and DP-Alt.

Someone: "That Original SE remains the best iPhone case design."

It's a close second! The iPhone 5C was my favorite. The only reason I didn't buy a 5C on sight is because it was introduced the same day as the first 64-bit phone. Who wants to buy a phone that's clearly going to lose support years sooner than the one next to it? I don't think they thought that one through.

Daniël: "The camera bump is not an issue at all, since it’s not where you typically hold the phone."

But I also put it in pockets (top-first), throw it in backpacks, set it on tables, hold it with two hands in landscape orientation, ... The camera zit has been a constant annoyance on every phone I've owned that had one.

I do hope the mini gets brought back (but know better than to hold my breath)