In a report detailing Apple's upcoming plans, The Information said that Apple is placing hopes on the super-thin iPhone 17 Air and the foldable iPhone, which are rumored to revive sales. Despite the expansion of its product portfolio, the iPhone is still Apple's most important product, bringing them more than half of their revenue.
However, major changes to the iPhone product line are not without challenges. First of all, because this is a new model, it is difficult to predict demand, which is why Apple's manufacturing partners only allocate 10% of the production capacity to the iPhone 17 Air model.
40% of the power will be for the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is understandable because this model tends to be the most chosen to buy whenever Apple launches a new iPhone. 25% of the capacity will be for the iPhone 17 Pro, the rest will be for standard models.
With a thickness of 5.5mm, the iPhone 17 Air will be the thinnest iPhone to date. Its only main competitor will be the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, rumored to be 5.8mm thick.
In addition to the challenge of potential demand, according to The Information, the battery life of the iPhone 17 Air is also unimpressive. While the majority of current iPhone users can use the device in one day with just one charge, one-third of iPhone 17 Air users may need to recharge their device twice a day.
To address this issue, Apple is said to be developing a phone case with a battery pack to extend battery life for the thinnest iPhone model.
Another thing that could reduce the appeal of the new phone is that it will have only one speaker instead of two, unlike other iPhones.
There will also be barriers to selling phones in China, as this phone model does not have a physical SIM card Slot and Chinese regulations do not allow the use of eSIM.
According to comments from Phone Arena, despite its limitations, the iPhone 17 Air is likely to be well received by users because it is thin and has a quite impressive design. In addition, this new iPhone model is expected to have a large screen of up to 6.6 inches, located between the Pro and Pro Max models.
