The price cut of the iPhone has broken a record.
Just three months after the release of the "thinnest iPhone to date", the iPhone Air has once again become the focus in an unexpected way - this time, due to a significant price drop.
On January 23rd, Apple launched a Spring Festival limited-time promotion. At the official Apple Store on Tmall, the iPhone Air, which was officially released on October 22nd, 2025, with a thickness of only 5.6mm and a weight of 165 grams, had an official direct discount of 2,000 yuan. After combining with national subsidies in some regions, the final price started from only 5,499 yuan.
Photo/Screenshot of the "Apple Store Official Flagship Store" on Tmall
Although new iPhone promotions have become the norm for Apple in recent years, and this is the third large-scale promotion it has launched recently, the iPhone Air's record-breaking price cut for a new model has attracted a great deal of attention. The topic "iPhone Air Plummets 2,000 Yuan" has made it onto the hot search list.
Since its release, the market performance of the iPhone Air has fallen far short of expectations. There's hardly any need to prove that it's not selling well, as the production side has already given feedback. About two months ago, there were reports that Apple's suppliers had dismantled several iPhone Air production lines. Recently, there have also been reports that many mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have cancelled projects related to thin and light models.
Zhang Shule, an industry analyst, believes that this price cut is very much like an inventory clearance of the iPhone Air by Apple to quickly "recover funds", and it also shows Apple's sincerity in offering discounts. Although it has become an "abandoned piece", getting national subsidies can also help cultivate the market for the next generation of ultra-thin phones. After all, an Apple product with an "excessive" price cut can still attract some "Apple fans".
But what's really more curious is why no one is buying this phone, which was once regarded as the biggest highlight of Apple's 2025 autumn press conference?
Is No One "Loving" the iPhone Air?
Li Chen (a pseudonym) is a tech-savvy guy. His requirements for a phone are so simple that they seem a bit "outdated": he doesn't play games, doesn't like taking photos, rarely uses the phone's external speaker, and just needs the battery to barely last half a day. Most importantly, it has to be light. For this reason, he is willing to sacrifice some features and choose the iPhone Air.
But people like him are not the mainstream in today's smartphone market. This directly leads to the awkward situation of the iPhone Air: it meets the desire for thinness and lightness of a small group of people, but fails to meet the needs of the majority.
Judging from the actual market feedback, thinness and lightness are not a must-have. In fact, they don't even rank on many people's decision-making lists. At the beginning of the release of Apple's iPhone 17 series last year, the sales were quite good. On the JD.com mobile phone sales ranking list during the "Double 11" period, the iPhone 17 series occupied the top three spots on the single-product cumulative list, while the iPhone Air, released at the same time, was nowhere to be found.
Guo Mingchi, a well-known Apple analyst and an analyst at Tianfeng International Securities, once said that the iPhone Air is a product that may arouse the motivation to buy after actually using it. Li Chen, who was very used to his iPhone 15 Pro, only started thinking about changing his phone after "feeling" the iPhone Air several times at an Apple offline store.
To achieve the "thin and light" goal of a 5.6mm thickness and 165-gram weight, the iPhone Air has made concessions in key configurations such as the battery, camera, and speaker. The battery with a capacity of only 3,149 mAh takes up a large part of the phone's body. There is also a single camera and a single speaker, which are quite rare in today's mainstream smartphones, and even the SIM card has been cancelled.
Photo/Provided by the interviewee
When a phone is no longer just a communication tool but has to undertake various functions such as taking photos, shooting videos, video editing, playing audio and video, and playing games, the "thinnest iPhone to date" feature of the iPhone Air is directly replaced by "reduced configuration" in the eyes of many consumers.
What's even more crucial is the price.
The iPhone Air was released at a price of 7,999 yuan, which is higher than most Android flagship phones. Although it has the same price as the 512GB iPhone 17, its storage capacity is only half of the latter. Facing the iPhone 17, which was hailed as the most cost-effective standard version last year, the iPhone Air seems even more inadequate. Moreover, consumers have to go to the business hall to change to an eSIM card.
GfK's monitoring of the mobile phone market during the 2025 "Double 11" period found that high-end models priced above 6,000 yuan had an explosive growth, accounting for up to 50% of the sales volume in this price range. Its analysis believes that flagship phones accurately address users' pain points and provide emotional value beyond basic functions. They are no longer just productivity tools.
In other words, consumers are not unwilling to spend a lot of money on a phone. They just need a reason to pay for "high-end". So many people have to start thinking before buying the iPhone Air: "Why spend the same amount of money to buy a phone with reduced configuration?"
Zhong Xiaolei, an analyst at the technology research and consulting firm Omdia, told the Interesting Report that the Samsung Galaxy S25 edge, which was released earlier, also faced the same problem of not being recognized by the market. "In today's highly competitive mobile phone market, consumers are already used to high-configured phones. Most people can't accept paying the price of a flagship phone for just the thin and light feature, especially when many configurations are 'cut'."
As Zhang Shule mentioned, consumers do have a demand for thinner phones, but compared with pain points such as performance and battery life, this is always just an "itch". The actions in the industry confirm this.
It was reported that Apple's supply chain had dismantled some iPhone Air production lines, and Android manufacturers came to the conclusion earlier - there were reports that Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo cancelled projects related to thin and light models, and the eSIM technology originally prepared for Air-like models has returned to regular flagships.
In the face of consumers' lack of interest, it seems that the entire industry can't find a reason to make "thin and light phones" enter the mainstream for the time being.
Will the Air Disappear?
However, Zhong Xiaolei also said that Apple may not care so much about the demand for thin and light models.
Previously, the market performance of Apple's mid-range models such as the mini and Plus series did not meet expectations. Especially for Chinese consumers, what they care more about is the balance between size and cost-effectiveness, and the iPhone Air is no exception.
"The iPhone Air doesn't have the '17' in its name, which shows that Apple may not have intended to make it a model that is updated annually, and it is obviously not a phone that can achieve high sales volume." As early as the press conference, Zhong Xiaolei mentioned that the iPhone Air is more of a preliminary trial for the foldable phone that may be launched the following year, aiming to stack more components in a limited space and accumulate more engineering experience.
The iPhone Air, independent of the numerical series. Photo/Screenshot from the Apple official website
He also added that Apple has always emphasized the importance of design. The innovative attempt of the iPhone Air in terms of form is also beneficial for it to further strengthen its brand image centered around design.
Zhang Shule agrees with this. Although he believes that the iPhone Air lost its product memory point because the eSIM couldn't be implemented smoothly at the beginning, and the general consumers don't have a deep understanding of the "ultra-thin" concept, Apple has always had a tradition of making innovative trial and error in various directions including form. "From this perspective, the relatively unsuccessful but mature iPhone Air is still very 'Apple'."
When someone makes frequent trial and error, there are many followers. In the past, the industry often joked that Apple was crossing the river by feeling the stones, and other manufacturers were crossing the river by feeling Apple. However, this time, the Android manufacturers who were just tentatively preparing to "cross the river" withdrew faster.
As soon as the iPhone Air was released in the domestic market, Guo Mingchi publicly said that the supply chain had started to reduce shipments and production capacity, and the production capacity was generally reduced by more than 80% in the first quarter of 2026. Soon after, there were reports that many Android manufacturers had cancelled projects related to the Air model. According to Jiemian News, currently, Honor still has a thin and light phone project, and Lenovo and Transsion still retain the Air model.
Zhong Xiaolei pointed out that Android manufacturers are always sensitive to consumers' needs. On the one hand, they think that the market demand for thin and light phones objectively exists, so they choose to follow up. On the other hand, they will react quickly after getting feedback from the market and make flexible adjustments.
The "flexibility" of Android manufacturers may also be reflected in the fact that their attempts at thinness and lightness don't try to reach the so - called "extreme" like Apple.
For example, the Huawei Mate 70 Air, released at the beginning of November last year, is named Air, but it has a thickness of 6.6mm, a weight of 208 grams, and is equipped with a 6,500 mAh battery, with a starting price of 4,199 yuan. Judging from the sales situation at the Huawei JD.com self - operated flagship store, this Air model with a relatively balanced performance and price has been favored by many people.
Photo/Screenshot of the e - commerce page (early December 2025)
As for the Lenovo moto X70 Air, which is also on sale, its thickness is close to that of Apple's, only 5.9mm. Due to the use of a plastic body, it weighs less than 160 grams and has a 4,800 mAh battery. More importantly, the official price of the 12GB + 256GB version of this thin and light smartphone is only 2,599 yuan. After combining with platform discounts and subsidies, it only costs about 2,000 yuan, which is quite affordable.
Photo/Screenshot of the e - commerce page (early December 2025)
Regarding this, Zhong Xiaolei commented that the overall strategy of Android manufacturers is relatively conservative. They don't "slash" the configurations as much as Apple and have also made some distinctions in the price range, which can improve consumers' acceptance of thin and light models to a certain extent.
Therefore, although the iPhone Air may not be successful in terms of sales, it doesn't mean that making the phone thin and light is a failed attempt.
"Thinness and lightness are more of a development direction rather than a specific model." Zhang Shule said that although thinness and lightness are not a must-have, they are still a relatively basic demand. Especially for the foldable screen, which has always attracted a lot of attention and that Apple has tested the waters with the iPhone Air, it also needs to become thinner and lighter in the future.
Zhong Xiaolei said that Apple's integration of software and hardware may be its greatest advantage when developing foldable screen products, that is, how to truly bring out the advantages of the large screen of the foldable screen through software. He also reminded that whether it's thin and light models or foldable screens, innovation in form mainly determines the success or failure of a certain product. In the future, the competition in the mobile phone industry will still return to a higher - level AI.
As for whether this price cut of the iPhone Air can really speed up its retail sales, we still need to wait for market feedback. "The iPhone Air is still too picky about its audience," Zhong Xiaolei said.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Interesting Report", author: Liang Tingting, editor: Tennessee. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.