In a stark illustration of the disparity between the sales volume of the iPhone Air and Apple's new iPhone 17 lineup, the former has managed to garner just 1.1 percent of the latter's sales momentum in China, a market that was previously believed to be particularly predisposed to Apple's ultra-slim offering.
Ice Universe: Apple has managed to sell just 200,000 units of the iPhone Air
According to the respected tipster Ice Universe, Apple has managed to sell just 200,000 units of the iPhone Air in China vs. the 17 million units of the iPhone 17 lineup.
This is especially jarring given the fact that the iPhone Air had spurred a wider trend towards eSIMs in China, which had remained notoriously eSIM-shy up until recently.
This comes as we reported recently that Apple's Tmall-based official online store in China was offering discounts of up to 2,000 yuan ($286) to encourage sales uptake. This means that you can grab a new iPhone Air for just around $788 in the Asian giant.
Similarly, JD.com is offering a subsidy of around $57 on top of Apple's official discount, leading to a cumulative price reduction of around $415.
The iPhone Air has also had the highest depreciation rate of any iPhone model launched since 2022, with data revealing that the device has lost 47.7 percent of its original value in the first 10 weeks of its inception.
Do note that the Apple iPhone Air only offers a hobbled battery capacity, a single 48MP camera, albeit with Telephoto-like optical-quality 2× zoom, and a single speaker.
In the face of disappointing sales figures for the iPhone Air, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman recently claimed that Apple always expected the iPhone Air to constitute between 6 percent and 8 percent of its annual iPhone sales, and that the ultra-thin smartphone continues to retain utility for Apple as an experimental platform for testing new technology.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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