The iPhone Air is the latest example of Apple’s obsession with the next big thing

It might sound odd to say about such an obviously future-focused industry, but it’s definitely possible for tech companies to look too far ahead. Like most things it’s a balance: you don’t want to release a product designed for yesterday’s world, but it’s just as unhelpful to release one that compromises on present benefits in order to deliver futuristic features customers don’t need yet. Being truly ahead of your time is rarely a good thing for a tech product. Just look at Google Glass.

That’s not to say that some degree of future-proofing is a bad idea. Take the iPhone 12 Pro, which I reviewed back in 2020. The 12 Pro didn’t represent much of an improvement on previous generations in the short term, but the super-powerful processor, 5G support, and LiDAR scanner meant it was ready for the evolving needs of users in the years to come. I liked that phone.

There are two key elements to the iPhone 12 Pro’s appeal. The tech developments it was designed for took effect within its lifespan: 5G coverage, for example, had become far more widespread within the two to three years most customers keep a smartphone. And the phone itself was set up to handle those developments itself; it wasn’t just an imperfect testbed to lay the foundations for later hardware generations. Future-proofing that meets these two criteria, I would argue, is a net positive.

Now let’s compare the iPhone 12 Pro’s future-proofing to that of some more recent Apple products. For example, the iPhone 16, which was marketed on the back of Apple Intelligence, presumably because everyone was talking about AI, and Cupertino felt it needed to get in on the action. It might sound like including AI on a smartphone in 2024 was an act of future-proofing: AI is almost certainly going to shape society in the years to come, for better or worse. But a year on from launch, Apple Intelligence is still doing a very poor job of delivering that vision, mainly because it’s so limited in scope.

Will Apple Intelligence become worthwhile within the two- to three-year timeframe I mentioned earlier? Perhaps, but it has to be said that Apple’s efforts so far don’t inspire a lot of confidence. In any case, since it’s a software feature, there was no reason from the customer’s point of view why Apple Intelligence had to be part of the iPhone 16 launch. Apple could have just waited until its AI suite was ready and rolled it out retroactively on compatible phones.

The problem is that Apple doesn’t seem to be looking at things from the customer’s point of view. From a corporate point of view, rolling out Apple Intelligence early probably seemed like a great way to build hype and sell more iPhones. And from a corporate point of view, getting software out to customers, even flawed, is a great way to harvest data and iterate on it. It’s just hard on those who paid $799 to act as glorified quality control testers.

Then again, perhaps iPhone 16 buyers should be happy they didn’t have to pay $3,499, the price Apple charges for Vision Pro. Here, too, Apple was unable to resist a hyped buzzword and delivered a product for the future that was unable to meet any present-day requirements. Vision Pro version 1 is incredible and exciting and totally impractical right now because of its large weight, short battery life, and skimpy range of useful functions. I get that Apple needed Vision Pro to exist so it could make Vision Pro 2. But why did the rest of us have to be dragged in?

And what of the iPhone Air? Did anyone ask for a 5.6mm iPhone that costs more and offers less battery life? Probably not. But Apple did it anyway because it’s a necessary stepping stone between the present and the future. The iPhone Air makes more sense as a route to somewhere else–most likely a folding phone–than as a standalone commercial product.

For the average smartphone buyer in 2025, two of the highest priorities will be battery life and camera performance. The iPhone Air, by all accounts, does a surprisingly decent job in both of those areas, given the constraints of its form factor, and it also stands up to physical punishment better than such a thin phone has any right to. But the form factor is a self-imposed limitation. You don’t get credit for creating a problem and then coming up with a (partial) solution.

Let me be clear. I’m not saying the iPhone Air is a bad phone; I haven’t even tried one yet. I’m saying that the decisions that let to its existence were taken in order to meet long-term corporate goals rather than short-term customer ones, and that the future-proofing it represents won’t benefit the people who actually pay for one.

The sad thing is that the iPhone Air is part of a clear pattern of behavior at Apple Park. Time and again, imperfect or compromise-ridden products are rushed out the door because Apple wants to join an exciting new market. Apple Intelligence wasn’t ready, but Apple wanted to do AI, so it had to launch. The first Vision Pro isn’t practical, but Apple wanted to make a mixed-reality device, so it had to launch. And now, because Apple wants to map a route to foldables, we get the iPhone Air: a phone design so demanding that the engineers had to perform miracles just to deliver respectable performance in two key areas. All for the sake, in the short term, of a thinner phone.

Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.

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