Leveling up the "spend more to get less" iPhone

Juli Clover writing for MacRumors, linking to a post on The Information: iPhone Air Sales Are So Bad That Apple's Delaying the Next-Generation Version

Apple initially planned to release a new ‌iPhone Air‌ in fall 2026, but now that's not going to happen.

Now that The Information is reporting on it as well, I'm guessing the numerous rumors of it's underperformance have been true. Taking a year off to make the Air less of a compromised device that only appeals to people who can afford to purposely spend more to get less is the right call, in my opinion.

I wrote a member's post recently about how I thought the iPhone Air is much different from the iPhone X, which proved to be a very successful phone and which was indeed the immediate future of the whole iPhone lineup. In short, the iPhone X was an upgrade in every single metric over the other iPhones at the time, it wasn't a compromise device that had a cool design. You paid more, but you got more, no asterisks.

It's not that I doubt a thin iPhone could be successful, I just don't think it's going to move the needle with normal people until it either feels like a straight upgrade over the normal iPhone or Apple can fill the gaps and just makes it the normal iPhone in the lineup.