An 'iPhone Air' and Foldable 'iBook'?
Mark Gurman
The most interesting element in Mark Gurman's newsletter this week is around the "thin" iPhone due next year:
Next year, Apple will give this fourth-model concept another try. The approach this time around: a far thinner design. The idea is to create an “Air” version of the iPhone of sorts, something that sits in between the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro. The most apt comparison is probably to the original MacBook Air from over a decade ago, which was somewhere between the regular MacBook and MacBook Pro.
The sales pitch will probably go like this: If you want something snazzier than a standard iPhone — but don’t really need the performance, screen size or cameras of a Pro model — you can get something that looks much cooler while still having the specifications of a regular iPhone.
There's been plenty of smoke around this new "thin" design – and the new, thin iPad Pro just seems to bolster the notion of Apple thinking in this direction – so it seems pretty clear that it's coming. But most had assumed – myself included – that it would be a new top-of-the-line version of the device. The 'iPhone Ultra' as it were. But here Gurman is suggesting that it will sit in between the "regular" iPhone and the iPhone Pro models.
But that MacBook Air analogy only really works if the device is also more expensive the the Pro variant. While the MacBook Air wasn't as powerful as a MacBook Pro – it was actually quite dreadfully slow – the fully spec'd-out version was more expensive than the Pro version. It wasn't entirely form over function, but it was certainly more in that direction.
Could Apple really do the same with the iPhone lineup? Release a more expensive, but less powerful device for those who want the new form factor? Maybe, but it would be a bit weird. Again, that is not what they did with the iPad recently, opting to bring the thin design to the very top of the line there.
Perhaps this 'iPhone Air' would be meant to eventually replace the "regular" iPhone, just as has happened with the MacBook lineup? But that just seems like a marketing quirk – Apple keeps using the 'Air' name because it has become synonymous with their most popular laptops. Meanwhile, the aforementioned iPad Pro is now thinner than the iPad Air – again, it's all just branding. And actually, it sounds like Apple may intend to go the other way with this design:
But even this slimmer entry will just be a step toward something better. Eventually, Apple will want to squeeze the power of a Pro model into this smaller design. That feat will likely take until at least 2027 to achieve. I also expect Apple to produce a foldable iPhone, but all signs internally point to a foldable iPad being just as big of a priority. That means we may still see a tablet version come sooner.
In any case, those options are still years away. In the shorter term, consumers will be facing a familiar sight: an iPhone that looks pretty similar to last year’s model.
In other words, the 'iPhone Air' would be a new design test, of sorts, for the iPhone Pro model lineup in the above scenario. They perhaps can't squeeze all those specs in that form-factor yet, so we'll get a sort of weird, in-between iPhone. But because it will look different, a lot of people will likely buy it. Especially if it is substantially thinner and lighter than current versions... And colorful?
One more thing: a couple weeks ago, there were a few reports about a foldable iPhone being set in motion with a flip-phone-like design and a 2026 targeted launch. As I wrote at the time:
So yeah, that's at least four different outlets reporting the same basic thing: that Apple is working on a folding phone, that the phone is going to fold from the top like an old school "flip-phone" (versus a true "foldable" that opens more like a book), and that 2026 is the likely launch year. Sadly, I believe Mark Gurman is on holiday from Bloomberg, otherwise I'm sure he'd confirm or deny the details here (he's reported on Apple's foldable ambitions plenty over the years).
Wayne Ma also previously reported on Apple working on such a phone back in February, but also cited former Apple employees thinking that an iPad was likely to be the first product to get such a design. Others have reported that a Mac may be the first such product given that it already, you know, folds. The latter never made a ton of sense to me – at least not anytime soon given the current state of foldable screen technology. But an iPad – in particular, an iPad mini that folded made a lot of sense. And actually, an iPhone that folded book-wise, like the Galaxy Fold or Pixel Fold could have been sort of a hybrid of the iPhone and iPad mini. But no, flip-iPhone, it will apparently be...
Per his above comment, Gurman is back and only says in passing that he believes it could still be the iPad that folds first – which, again, has always made more sense to me just given the current state of foldable phones. That is, they all still have that annoying screen crease that I can't imagine Apple would be okay with. Maybe that's solved by 2026, but probably not... Then again, with the iPhone increasingly looking quite literally long in the tooth in many Asian markets – and China, in particular – a foldable iPhone may be needed sooner than later, crease and all.
Still, I think the public would be more forgiving of a crease on a foldable iPad, which could even be marketed as being more like a book. An 'iBook' perhaps?