iPhone Air is such a flop even copycats are reportedly being canceled
Apple had high hopes when it unveiled the iPhone Air in September. But sales of the ultra-thin smartphone have been so disappointing that it’s even affecting other companies’ launch plans.
According to industry sources cited by Sina Finance and Jiemian.com (themselves cited by DigiTimes), several major Chinese smartphone makers have “frozen or canceled their own plans for ultra-thin ‘Air’ phones” in response to apparently disappointing sales of the iPhone Air. The list of affected companies includes Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo. In particular, Xiaomi was thought to be planning a copy of the iPhone Air, but reportedly abandoned the project.
A Cupertino defender might immediately see this as good news for Apple, which will at least benefit from the lack of competition. But this once again confirms that the iPhone Air was a misstep. Failure always seemed likely, given Samsung’s struggles with the Galaxy S25 Edge this summer, but at this point development of the Air must have been too far along to abandon. Regardless, Apple tends to view the failure of other companies as an opportunity rather than a warning sign.
The iPhone Air, like the original iPhone all those years ago, wasn’t the first ultra-thin phone to enter its market, but it hoped to be the first to solve the market’s problems. We were told that Air could not be bent; that its single rear camera lens was actually a “two-in-one camera system”; that its battery life was surprisingly good. But there were still inevitably compromises, and customers seem to prefer the familiar comfort of the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro.
In the months since its launch, isolated reports have indicated that the Air isn’t doing so bad after all, and a reader recently emailed me praising the Air and pointing out that revenue from carrier purchases might be delayed. But even though Apple has yet to announce official sales numbers (and will never announce numbers for the Air alone, but will factor them into overall iPhone revenue), it’s becoming difficult to ignore the weight of evidence pointing to failure.
On the production side, we heard that Apple had “significantly” reduced its orders; On the customer side, “virtually no consumer demand” was reported. And whether or not we choose to believe these reports (or draw conclusions from the fact that in the UK the iPhone Air is the only new model to get a Black Friday discount at Amazon), it’s striking that the market, driven purely by profit, is now turning away from the Air’s path.
