Apple isn’t shelving the iPhone Air 2 just yet, but a new model may still be years away

After years of bringing the same four iPhone models, Apple made a major change in its flagship lineup as it replaced the iPhone 16 Plus with a new slim and light iPhone called the iPhone Air. The new iPhone got a lot of attention on social media but soon after, reports suggested that the Cupertino based tech giant had postponed its next edition due to poor sales, signalling that the experiment by Apple may have failed.

However, a new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman states that may not be the truth after all. Gurman says Apple believed that the iPhone Air would account for around 6 to 8% of the new iPhone sales and that has ‘roughly’ matched the performance of the iPhone 16 Plus model.

To make his case, Gurman says that while Apple made a big deal about the iPhone Air during the September launch event, the tech giant hasn’t done much marketing for its thin and light flagship since then, which suggests that it never really anticipated much fanfare for the phone.

The report also notes that the iPhone Air was essentially a ‘prototype’ en route to the foldable iPhone. The iPhone Air reportedly used many of the same materials, miniaturisation techniques, internal components, batteries and software optimisations as the upcoming foldable iPhone and the idea behind the phone is said to be to prepare the Apple supply chain for these components.

What happens to iPhone Air 2?

Gurman says that given that Apple had named the iPhone Air and not iPhone 17 Air, it signalled that the phone wouldn’t be tied to the annual release cycle in September. Instead, he says that the iPhone Air could launch alongside the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e in the first half of 2027.

Notably, earlier reports had already confirmed that the iPhone 18 is being removed from the September launch cycle window and placed alongside the iPhone 18e, which could debut roughly six months after the next iPhone launch in September.

What features could iPhone Air 2 get?

Gurman predicts that iPhone Air 2 could come with a processor based on a 2 nanometre process chip, which could help improve its battery life that was one of the biggest drawbacks of the first model.

Meanwhile, Gurman says that adding an ultra wide camera alongside the main sensor would require Apple to change the whole design of the camera island, which wouldn’t make much sense for the company since it is one of the ‘least used iPhone cameras’.