Apple may release an iPhone 17 "Air" model, potentially sacrificing other models to realize its future vision.

The original MacBook Air was costly, lacked power, and had poor battery performance. Its price was strange, sitting between a more affordable, more powerful MacBook and a much better MacBook Pro. Gurman suggests Apple is doing the same thing with the iPhone 17 Air. It will supposedly be much thinner, but at the expense of battery life and camera quality, which are more important to users. It might have a single rear camera when two or three are now common.

This new "Air" model is expected to fit between the standard iPhone 17, which will have a better battery and more cameras, and the iPhone 17 Pro, which will be better overall. Its main feature is thinness, which is not as important as it once was when laptops were very large. Today's phones are not really hard to handle, and Samsung's similar S25 Edge had weak sales, showing that customers do not want to trade power for a slimmer design.

I agree with Gurman that the iPhone 17 Air will not be a huge success right away. Like the first MacBook Air, it will test new technology. Apple will use it to explore new engineering, battery technology, and production methods that will eventually be used in all of its products.

This device will help make all iPhones thinner in the future and could even lead to a foldable device. However, as Gurman said, while the iPhone 17 Air might offer an exciting look at the future, the iPhone 17 or iPhone 17 Pro would be a better purchase.

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