My favorite modern iPhone was the iPhone 13 Mini. It solved the battery problems of the iPhone 12 Mini while maintaining the one-handed form factor. However, the phone didn’t achieve enough sales, so Apple scrapped it and replaced it with a Plus model.
Even the Plus model failed to capture the public’s attention, and Apple quietly discontinued it last year, replacing it with the sleeker, sleeker iPhone Air. Previous reports suggested that the iPhone Air wasn’t selling well and looked like another failure. However, new data from Ooklas Speedtest Intelligence suggests that these reports may be exaggerated.
The iPhone Air captured a 6.8% share of the US market in the fourth quarter of 2025. That might not sound like much, but consider this: The iPhone 16 Plus, the model it replaced, only achieved a 2.9% share during its launch. Apple has more than doubled the power of this roster slot.
Did the Air steal sales from the Pro models?
This is the question every Apple analyst has asked, and the answer is largely no. The iPhone 17 Pro Max held 55.5% of the market, almost identical to its predecessor’s 56.3%. The ultra-premium audience isn’t going anywhere.
What the Air attracted were buyers of the standard Pro model, whose share fell from 34.9% to 30.6%. Around 4% of users chose a slimmer design over a better camera and a larger battery. That’s a compromise that many people, including me, were happy to make.
How did Samsung’s thin phone compare?
If you follow the smartphone news cycle, you know that Samsung wanted to steal the spotlight from the iPhone Air by releasing its own slim phone. However, reports suggest that the move may have backfired.
In the US, the iPhone Air outperforms the S25 Edge by three to one, 6.8% versus 2.4%. In markets like the UK and Germany, the S25 Edge is barely represented with less than 1% market share.
The data confirms what Apple probably suspected. People didn’t want a bigger or smaller iPhone; They wanted something cooler.
