Apple launched its innovative iPhone Air this fall and there was a ton of buzz around it. Fans were super excited for the sleek and ultra-slim design—that is, until launch day, when they came face-to- face with its price tag. Not only was the device too pricey, but Apple had to scale back performance to make the thin design work. So essentially, what happened was—users were being asked to pay significantly more for a device that worked worse than the other models released alongside it. And no matter how cute it looked or how impressive the engineering and innovation was, most consumers were not sold on the idea.
Apple’s failure with the slimmest iPhone isn’t the only one in the market. Even Samsung didn’t have much luck with its own ultra-thin plans—the S25 Edge did not perform very well and had a lot of performance issues, leading them to scrap the development of its successor altogether.
And once both Apple and Samsung stumbled, well, it didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the industry considering that’s where most of their inspiration comes from. The poor performance of the big two served as a cautionary tale and companies like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo quickly hit pause on their own super-thin phone projects, deciding it wasn’t worth the risk after all.
So now, not only has Apple reportedly postponed the second-generation iPhone Air, it has also “inspired” the rest of the industry to disregard their own plans. Say what you will about Apple, but they truly are the trendsetters of the marketplace—in success and in failure.
