The iPhone Air 2 Might Already Be DOA

Bad news for fans of thin phones: the chances of a new iPhone Air next year might already be evaporating before our eyes. According to a new report from The Information, Apple is delaying a second-gen iPhone Air amid tepid sales.

A follow-up to this year’s iPhone Air was supposed to be even thinner and have a bigger battery capacity than this year’s model. But according to the report, Apple has already removed the “iPhone Air 2†from the schedule for next year’s releases without giving a new release date. Apple has stopped short of outright canceling its new thin phone and some engineers are reportedly still working on the device. The Information says there’s a possibility the iPhone Air 2 could be released “as soon as spring 2027 alongside the standard iPhone 18 and budget-friendly 18e.â€

It doesn’t take an expert analyst to figure out why Apple might be changing course. Apple has reportedly already cut production of the iPhone Air to what is usually considered end-of-cycle levels, which means that either consumers aren’t buying the skinny phone or Apple overestimated demand and produced more supply than it could sell. The Information says Foxconn, where most iPhones are made, has already wound down all but one and a half production lines for the current iPhone Air.

On one hand, it’s disappointing; the iPhone Air is, in a lot of ways, a feat of engineering. It’s almost impossibly thin and still manages to be fast and come with a battery life that, though it doesn’t compete with the base model iPhone 17, still performs better than you’d expect from a phone that’s so slight. On the other hand, it makes sense. People still care a lot about not having to charge their phones all the time or having to slap a charging case on the back that pretty much nullifies the whole point of having a thin phone to begin with. Multiply that by the fact that Apple is also charging a premium for the iPhone Air, and the picture starts to make sense.

Not to mention, there’s also the matter of cameras. While some speculated that a next-gen iPhone Air would add an ultrawide camera, achieving parity with the base iPhone models, which have two sensors, the hopes of that happening are likely slim to none. As Gizmodo’s Senior Editor, Consumer Tech, Raymond Wong, noted, there’s simply no room inside the Air to fit another sensor, barring some kind of massive battery breakthrough or camera plateau enlargement.

We, of course, don’t know anything for sure at this point. The iPhone Air 2 might still see the light of day, just not on the one-year cycle we’re used to. The experiment with thin phones hasn’t exactly gone swimmingly so far, and Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Edge has reportedly also been canceled. In the end, it might just be that people really care about cameras, battery life, and getting a very good deal on performance and feature sets.