Apple’s Sales Hopes Deflated by Tepid iPhone Air Demand

Sales of Apple’s iPhone Air have reportedly been lower than anticipated.

That’s according to a report Saturday (Nov. 22) by the Financial Times (FT), citing early sales data for the Air, a thinner iPhone and the largest change to Apple’s smartphone design in years.

According to the report, consumers instead have sought out better value and higher specifications, turned off by the Air’s relatively high price and changes to the camera and speakers needed to create its 5.64 millimeter thickness.

“Apple had bigger expectations for the Air and it has not delivered on them,” said Nabila Popal, senior research director at the International Data Corporation.

IDC, which monitors iPhone sales by tracking Apple’s supply chain, found the company had halved production plans within weeks of the launch after the new smartphone sold about a third of its highest expectations.

PYMNTS has contacted Apple for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The FT report said Apple is looking for new ways to energize iPhone sales, which made up $209 billion in revenue for the first nine months of the year, around half Apple’s total sales.

Other phones in the iPhone 17 lineup, which debuted at the same time as the Air, have sold well, the report added. Apple has projected these sales will help fuel a record holiday quarter, far above Wall Street estimates. 

The report also cited analysts from Morgan Stanley who projected that Apple could build 90 million units of the iPhone 17 in the second half of the year, which is roughly 6 million more than expected before the launch. The figures were “partially offset by relative weakness in the iPhone Air,” they added.

Demand for the new phone was credited as the reason Apple achieved a $4 trillion market capitalization last month.

Also last month, a report from research firm Counterpoint found that early sales of the iPhone 17 had outshone those of the iPhone 16 in the U.S. and China.

“The base model iPhone 17 is very compelling to consumers, offering great value for money,” Senior Analyst Mengmeng Zhang said in the Counterpoint report. “A better chip, improved display, higher base storage, selfie camera upgrade — all for the same price as last year’s iPhone 16.”

Meanwhile, a recent report by Bloomberg News said that a new version of the iPhone Air could be part of a wider rollout of new smartphones by Apple next fall.

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