Apple built the dream iPhone. Why doesn’t anyone want it?

The ultra-thin iPhone Air definitely caught everyone’s attention when it was unveiled last September. It’s the thinnest iPhone ever made and it gave us a clear glimpse into the future of smartphones. When the new iPhones hit shelves on September 19, everyone was talking about the iPhone Air.

Months later, the reality is that very few people seem to have chosen the iPhone Air over its siblings. Owners sing its praises, it’s one of the few iPhones to benefit from a no-obligation discount and its design has been hailed as one of Apple’s best. So why hasn’t it been as successful as other models?

Perception versus perspective

There’s no denying that the iPhone Air is a truly impressive device. Although my daily driver is an iPhone 17 Pro Max, I’ve had the chance to spend time with the iPhone Air on several occasions (most recently at an Apple event), and every time I hold it in my hands, I’m amazed by how thin and light it is.

We’re talking about a phone that’s just 5.64 millimeters thick and weighs just 165 grams. For comparison, the 17 Pro Max is 3 millimeters thicker and weighs 233 grams. It’s impossible not to feel the difference.

Foundry

The Air is also beautiful. The combination of its ultra-slim design and shiny titanium frame screams luxury. However, sales of the iPhone Air are far from being a huge success.

Apple itself does not provide details on sales figures for each iPhone model. But on a call with investors last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple CFO Kevan Parekh revealed that the iPhone 17 lineup is the most popular in history.

A Chinese leaker known as “Digital Chat Station” recently shared a report previewing iPhone Air sales, and the numbers aren’t encouraging. According to the report, Apple is struggling to surpass the one million mark for iPhone Air units shipped. So far, the company has reportedly sold around 700,000 units of its thinnest iPhone yet, an incredibly low figure for a company that moves some 250 million handsets each year.

Dreams versus reality

I’ve always dreamed of an ultra-thin phone. For me, the phone of the future would be a device with a thinner edge-to-edge screen than the iPhone 6. The iPhone Air is, in some ways, the closest thing to Apple’s vision.

Many people I know want the same thing: thinner, lighter phones. After all, as smartphones have become more powerful, they have also become bigger, thicker and heavier. But the overall failure of the iPhone Air begged a question: Do people prioritize design over functionality, or the other way around?

Once again, the iPhone Air is impressive. But once you start spending time on it, you realize its limitations.

Britta O’Boyle / Foundry

Because it’s so thin, Apple was only able to fit a single rear camera on the iPhone Air. You cannot take photos with ultra-wide or long-range zoom. This isn’t a problem for people who don’t like taking photos, but it’s likely that you’ll end up running out of extra angles for your photos.

The battery is also an issue. After all, it’s not possible to fit a huge battery into an ultra-thin phone. Although Apple claims the iPhone Air lasts a full day on a single charge, the reality is that this only applies when you’re using your phone for basic tasks. People who work more intensively with their phones end up having to charge the iPhone Air twice a day.

Additionally, there are a few other minor limitations, such as the Air having a mono speaker and the lack of a vapor chamber found in the iPhone 17 Pro models, which allows the phone to run cooler for longer.

Given the poor sales of the iPhone Air and other thin phones, such as the Galaxy Edge, it seems people still prefer functionality over design, or at least a balance between the two. Buyers are not ready to give up features for a sophisticated form factor in 2026.

Want versus need

These limitations are not a problem for everyone. There are people who just want a smartphone to do basic things like send messages or browse the web. For these people, an iPhone Air works great.

But things get complicated when you start comparing the iPhone Air to the rest of the range. For all its hardware limitations, the Air starts at $999. That’s just $100 less than the iPhone 17 Pro, which has two additional cameras and a much larger battery.

Eugene Wegmann

Or, if you’re looking for something a little more affordable, you can get the base iPhone 17 for just $799. For that price, you get a phone with a 120Hz display, dual rear cameras, and longer battery life. Additionally, the iPhone 17 weighs only 12 grams more than the iPhone Air.

This makes it seem like the iPhone Air has no place in the lineup. It’s priced similar to a Pro model, but offers fewer features than the base iPhone.

You should expect to give up some features when you buy an entry-level phone like the iPhone 17e, which also has a single rear camera but costs $599 (and still has a bigger battery than the iPhone Air). But with the Air, you’re essentially paying more just to get a thinner phone.

When you compare the price to everything you’ll be missing out on, the iPhone Air becomes hard to justify.

Is there a future for the iPhone Air?

While the iPhone Air represents the future of smartphone design, the future of the iPhone Air itself is now unclear. If the latest reports are accurate, Apple could be rethinking its Air strategy, and it’s easy to see why.

For years, people have said they want thinner, lighter phones. Apple has delivered exactly that. But in doing so, it also revealed an uncomfortable truth: thinness alone is no longer enough.

Eugene Wegmann

Many people now rely on smartphones as more than just communication tools. So compromising on things like battery life or camera quality is simply out of the question. The iPhone Air asks users to prioritize form over function. And while that sounds appealing in theory, it’s a much harder sell in practice, especially at this price point.

Could Apple fix this problem in the future? Maybe. More advanced technologies could help Apple pack a bigger battery or better cameras into its ultra-thin iPhone, or the company could simply make the Air slightly thicker so it can fit more tech inside.

The iPhone Air is the dream phone. It’s the kind of device that gets people excited, that reminds us of how far technology has come. But when it comes time to spend $999, most people wake up from that dream and choose something more practical.