Apple may be planning to reduce production of the iPhone Air due to underwhelming sales according to the investment banking and securities firm Mizuho Securities. As seen by the Korean publication, The Elec, the Japanese firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models are seeing higher sales compared to last year, with the base iPhone 17 performing much better than the iPhone 16.
"Except for the Air model, sales have been solid so far," the report reads, according to The Elec.
However, the iPhone Air appears to be an outlier with Mizuho asserting that Apple plans to reduce production of the thin iPhone by a million units while increasing production of the other models by two million. This is despite news that the iPhone Air reportedly sold out in hours in China.
A report yesterday claimed that Samsung has cancelled the Galaxy S26 Edge due to low sales. The lower battery capacity and high price being potential drawbacks.
Wait, it's probably not that bad
Apple doesn't release production figures and the Mizuho report hasn't been corroborated elsewhere. Despite an alleged muted response in Western countries, one Chinese retailer recorded over 5 million reservations.
Regular Apple leaker ShrimpApplePro noted that Apple is only reducing production and is not cancelling the phone. They also claimed that predictions for 2026 are "coming pretty strong" for the iPhone Air. and that the initial sales are "miles better than" the S25 Edge.
Noted leaker Max Weinbach posted that estimates put the total volume of produced iPhone Air units between 19 and 21 million. So the reported reduction only takes things down to 18 to 20 million. He added that the Galaxy S24 Ultra sold between 15 and 16 million units during its life.
For comparison, the S25 Edge reportedly has sold 1.31 million phones as of August 2025, with the other S25 phones selling between 5x and 12x as many units in the same time frame.
The same Mizuho Securities report additionally claimed that the foldable iPhone could be delayed into 2027. They also seemed to confirm the rumored two-stage iPhone 18 release with the Pro models coming in September of 2026 and the vanilla iPhone 18 and 18e launching in the spring of 2027.
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