For several months leading up to its introduction two weeks ago, Apple’s thinnest iPhone was rumored to be called the “iPhone 17 Air;” however, Apple officially dubbed it as just the “iPhone Air,” and there was even a last-minute rumor that claimed the official name. Despite its debut, some just informally called it the “iPhone 17 Air.” So why wasn’t the phone called the “iPhone 17 Air?” After all, this phone was announced alongside the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro.
If Apple’s slimmest iPhone were called the “iPhone 17 Air,” then it could imply that it would be part of the iPhone 17 lineup. If we take a look at the current lineup, you’ll see that the iPhone Air is priced between the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Pro, so it could imply that the iPhone Air is better than the iPhone 17 in all specs, right? As you may have known before, that is not the case. When you step up to the iPhone Air from the base iPhone 17, you’d be losing out on some features, including a second speaker and the Ultra Wide camera, not to mention that you may be experiencing fewer hours of screen time with the iPhone Air than on the iPhone 17, based on several battery tests on YouTube. Therefore, it was best for Apple to have its ultra-slim phone as an all-new model that’s separate from the main iPhone series by calling it just the “iPhone Air.”
Since the iPhone Air is technically in its first generation, it’s way too early to tell whether we’d see annual updates for this model, or if this model would get updated every other year. Regardless of the iPhone Air’s upgrade cycle, we have been anticipating an upcoming “iPhone Fold” that is expected to make its debut next fall, and Apple is also rumored to stagger the update cycle for its base iPhone into the spring. So if the iPhone Air gets another update, and Apple announces its first-ever “iPhone Fold,” then the future announcement of iPhone models for fall 2026 could consist of the following:
- iPhone Air 2
- iPhone 18 Pro
- iPhone 18 Pro Max
- “iPhone Fold”
If Apple continues to update the same models every fall going forward, you may see a problem down the road: Apple would be using different “versioning” numbers for the Air model, its main series, and the “Fold” model. Since the numbers would be all over the place, it’d be hard to keep track of which “generation” of a specific iPhone model we’re on. Maybe it’s time that Apple should apply the same year-based versioning-number scheme from its lineup of platforms (iOS/iPadOS/macOS, etc.), which was inspired by what the car industry has been doing, to its iPhone models for better consistency. So we could get something like this for Apple’s iPhone lineup by the end of spring 2027:
- iPhone 27e
- iPhone 27
- iPhone 27 Air
- iPhone 27 Pro
- iPhone 27 Pro Max
- iPhone 27 Fold
What do you think, should Apple adopt a more consistent versioning scheme for its lineup of iPhones, in case Apple adds new models to the lineup? Sound off in the comments below.
