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Forbes
11-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Apple iPhone 17e: Will The Budget iPhone Land In Spring 2026?
This year Apple retired the iPhone SE and introduced the iPhone 16e. It raised the question: will the entry-level phone have an annual cycle or longer, as the iPhone SE did? We may have the answer. Will iPhone 16e be replaced by iPhone 17e in less than a year? Respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TFI Securities is the latest to tackle that question, just days after another industry heavyweight, Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, had his own opinion. Here's the thing: Apple is careful in its naming of products. Dropping the iPhone SE name indicated certain things: the new phone wouldn't stick to the small iPhone with Touch ID format of earlier iPhone SE models, nor would it regurgitate an existing design by adding a new processor. The iPhone 16e name confirmed that the new handset was something quite different — and it made a price increase easier for customers to swallow as suddenly this was an all-new entry into the iPhone 16 series. And the new name also suggests a faster cadence of upgrades: if the iPhone 17 is out this fall, wouldn't iPhone 17e make sense in spring next year? Well, perhaps. But one of the ways Apple keeps the price of its entry-level phones low is to use an existing design and to keep it in the range for several years. Mark Gurman, in his Power On newsletter from April 27, had his own idea, and commented on the naming change. 'The other lever Apple pulled here was marketing it as an iPhone 16 variant rather than a new iPhone SE. That adds quite a bit more allure and makes it more interesting to consumers in places like China,' Gurman said. Then, he addressed the issue of when it should be replaced. 'The big question is whether Apple will update this new 'e' line annually. Apple hasn't yet made a final decision — and it's still months from needing to,' he insisted. However, Ming-Chi Kuo has a different opinion. In a blog of his own, Kuo revealed his predictions of all the new iPhones coming in the next two years and more. Kuo says that iPhone 17e is on schedule as the only iPhone release in the first half of 2026, and iPhone 18e will land in the first half of 2027. If correct, it could mean more phones than ever in the range, unless the iPhone 16e is retired when the iPhone 17e launches. Maybe that's why other iPhones were deleted when the iPhone 16e appeared, to simplify the range.
Forbes
05-05-2025
- Forbes
Apple iPhone 17 Air Promises Curious Design Change, New Leak Says
Updated May 5 with more iPhone 17 Air design details and more focus on the USB-C port, plus details of future Air models in subsequent years. When this fall's iPhones are revealed, there's one that's creating a lot of buzz. That model, nicknamed iPhone 17 Air, will be super-slim, as little as 5.5mm thick. But a new dummy has emerged which shows a curious redesign of the USB-C port. Here's why it's so curious and it comes at a time when interest in the new phone is growing. And there's already a report on subsequent iPhone Air models. Let's start with that. Respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TFI Securities has published a schedule of iPhones, as he sees it, from now until the second half of 2027. There are some intriguing details, but here we'll stick to what it means for the Air models, or 'iPhone 17 Slim,' as Kuo calls it. His belief is that the second half of this year will see the launch of the first model, the iPhone 17 Slim. We can be confident this means in September, as that's the routine month for iPhone releases. Then, in the second half of 2026, alongside several iPhone 18 handsets, there will be the iPhone 18 Slim. So far, so unsurprising, although it's good to note that Kuo believes the Air will be an annual release, not a less frequent one like the SE used to be, for instance. But when we get to what Kuo terms '2H27,' the comment is different. 'iPhone 19 Slim (with a larger display vs. 18 Slim),' is how Kuo describes that year's release. Apple regularly uses the same design two years' running, so the prospect that Apple is already planning a third Air or Slim with a bigger screen will appeal to many — assuming it lives up to the excitement it has already generated before it has even officially been acknowledged. Back to that design upgrade with a possibly ugly changed to the USB-C socket and its surrounding antenna band. Previous rumors about the 17 Air have been promising, such as better performance than expected, hints about new colors, and how its thinness compared to the rest of the range could be remarkable. The latest dummies being exhibited by leakers, such as this one released in a video by Apple Track, are exceptionally detailed. The video compares the dummy of the 17 Air to the current iPhone 16 Pro, and the difference in thickness is striking — and the difference will be even more pronounced if rumors about the iPhone 17 Pro Max design prove true. But the cost of that 5.5mm svelte design could come at the cost of symmetry on the base of the phone. That's because, as pointed out by MacRumors, 'Achieving this level of thinness is unlikely to come without compromise. Dummy models… suggest that Apple has made some subtle adjustments to accommodate internal components in the tighter chassis. Most notably, the USB-C port on the bottom edge is no longer centered front-to-back,' it points out. The dummy seems to show the socket is closer to the rear of the device than the front, which is 'likely to accommodate display components within the enclosure,' the report claims. Look closely within the USB-C port and the central element around which the hollow USB-C connector wraps when you plug it in, seems to be a little off-center, too, sitting lower than the middle. For many, this will look a little off, to say the least. But let's put this in perspective. There is a limit to how thin a display can be, while still accommodating touch capabilities and so on. So, it seems probably that the USB-C socket couldn't be any closer to the screen, so the only way to achieve the maximum thinness is to move it off-center. Add in that it's a part of the phone you literally only look at if you're plugging in a cable and it seems likely this is going to be no problem, after all. In terms of symmetry, it's also worth noting that the leaked dummy shows two perforations on either side of the USB-C port. That's symmetrical, at least, unlike the iPhone 17 Pro Max, for instance, which has six holes on one side and four on the other. Two holes suggests the speaker may not be as potent as it is on other iPhones, but we'll have to see. Note that the iPhone 17 Air is expected to dispense with the SIM card tray as well, which would be the first iPhone sold outside the U.S. designed for eSIM only. Interest in the phone is at a high, with 9to5Mac predicting the Air could soar in the sales charts thanks to its thin profile, for a start. Then there's a 'just-right' 6.6-inch screen size which could make the iPhone easier to use one-handed than is the case with the Pro Max iPhones, especially the latest model with its 6.9-inch display. Finally, it points out, the new design feels like the future, intriguing customers just as the iPhone X did back in 2017.
Forbes
24-04-2025
- Forbes
Apple iPhone 17 Air: ‘Pro' Design Upgrade Revealed In Latest Leak
When Apple releases its new iPhones, expected in September, it looks like the power is getting a boost: the onboard memory (RAM) will be boosted to 12GB for the first time outside a Pro model. Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max: with the iPhone 17 Air match the Pro phones in terms of onboard RAM? Currently, the maximum amount of RAM, 12GB, has always been restricted to iPhones with the word Pro in their name. However, according to respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from TFI Securities, that's going to change this year for at least one non-Pro model. In his latest blog post published on April 24, Kuo says that he has had to revise his previous assertion. 'Apple's 2H25 new iPhone 17 models, including the Pro Max, Pro, and ultra-thin, are now expected to feature 12GB of DRAM (vs. my earlier estimate that only the Pro Max would have this upgrade),' the post says. The 'ultra-thin' is the model that's currently been nicknamed the iPhone 17 Air by many, though it may not be called that. Why is this important? Because many have concluded so far that the new Air will be all about looks, without the brains to go with it. The extra RAM suggests that won't be the case, if it has as much of it as the Pro iPhones. Interestingly, Kuo goes on to say that the 12GB RAM could still come to the base iPhone 17, too. 'Apple aims to equip the iPhone 17 base model with 12GB as well, but potential supply shortages remain a concern. The company is finalizing its assessment and expects to make a decision by May,' he says. What's more, even if the scarcity of so much RAM means the iPhone 17 goes without, all iPhones in 2026, the iPhone 18 series, 'are expected to feature 12GB,' the report adds. Kuo puts this change down to intensifying competition in the smartphone market. I'd be more specific than that: I think the AI features which are increasingly common, are what will drive the need for more processing power, allowing the next iPhones to have some headroom when they're launched, to enable more Apple Intelligence features as they come on stream in the future.
