Update, Monday Apr 28, 2025: This article has been updated with details on the potential audience of the iPhone 17 Air.
The excitement around Apple’s new iPhone design is palpable. The presumptively-named iPhone 17 Air is expected to launch in September alongside the iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. The 17 Air will bring a thin design to Apple Stores around the world and Apple’s faithful fans will no doubt welcome the Air with open arms.
Even if there’s minimal risk and innovation in the package.
The iPhone 17 Air Hardware
There are changes away from the vanilla iPhone baseline. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has reported an increase in the base memory from 8 GB to 12 GB, which will no doubt allow a broader range of Apple Intelligence tools to run on the handset.,Kuo also notes he expects the vanilla iPhone 17 will pick up the 12 GB option.
The Axx series will continue to power the iPhone family. Currently, the A18 runs on the iPhone 17 and 17 Plus, while the A18 Pro runs on the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. The iPhone 17 Air is due to ship with the base A19 chipset, suggesting that the Air is a form-factor replacement over the iPhone 16 Plus—the Plus flavor itself replaced the iPhone Mini flavor).
Naturally, the design will focus on the thin form factor, which is generally accepted to be 5.6mm. As with every dimension specification, we’re only talking about the phone’s main body; don’t mention the expansive and bulky camera bar that will stick out across the top of the Air.
Yet, with all of these changes to bring a thin and capable design to market, Apple is not taking a leadership role in the ecosystem, is not taking any risks, and certainly isn’t disrupting the market.
The iPhone 17 Air’s Competition
The iPhone 17 Air will not launch into a market bereft of thin designs. Samsung signalled its intent in this space last with the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Special Edition, which trimmed down the size of its flagship foldable. Furthermore, at the launch of the Galaxy S25, it revealed the Galaxy S25 Edge, although it awaits a full release date.
A quick riffle through a library of spec sheets will show that thin and svelte has been on the mood board of every smartphone designer. Oppo’s Find N5 foldable clocks in at 8.93mm in your pocket; Tecno Mobile’s Spark Slim at 5.75 mm, and other slimline offerings are on sale in 2025 from Honor, Xiaomi and Huawei.
And if you want to really stoke the discussions, just bring up the 4.85mm thick Oppo R5… which was launched in 2014.
The iPhone 17 Air’s Target Audience
Update, Monday Apr 28, 2025.
The iPhone 17 Air may be a new addition to the iPhone line-up, but it’s not as disruptive as you might think. The awkward spot between the Vanilla and the Pro models has seen a smaller model (the Mini) and a larger model (the Plus). The Air will be the latest to try to turn the gap into an ongoing success.
Writing for Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman analyses the potential of the iPhone 17 Air to fit into the iPhone portfolio and how it will fare:
“Will this be the one that works? My belief is that the Air line won’t set any sales records — and that most iPhone fans will still spring for the Pro-level models. But I think the Air will be far more popular and better for Apple’s bottom line than the mini or Plus phones.”
It’s worth noting that the Air becoming more popular than the Mini or Plus is a low bar. According to research by CIPR, the iPhone 16 Plus may have matched the Q1 sales figures for the iPhone 16 Plus, but the vanilla iPhone models jumped from 14 percent of US sales in 2024 to 20 percent in 2025.
The iPhone 17 Air’s Market Position
Apple has, of course, a captive market. If you are locked into Apple’s ecosystem—be it through an extensive app library, the peer pressure of compatibility, or the deep connectivity between Apple hardware—then these Android-powered smartphones will not fit in your world. If thin is your thing, then you have no choice but to wait until Tim Cook and his team to decide that they want to offer you a thin iPhone.
That time is coming. I have no doubt that the faithful will flock to the latest from Cupertino and the sash of success will be draped over the svelte smartphone. Yet anyone looking at the wider market will see that Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 17 Air pushes very few boundaries.
Far from setting the agenda, the iPhone 17 Air is little more than a dedicated follower of fashion.
Now read the latest iPhone 17 Air, iOS, and App Store headlines in Forbes’ weekly Apple news digest…
