The iphone, which was once indissoluble, is now involved in the red sea of price warfare。
On 23 january 2026, apple store flagship officer announced that he would take part in the “annual day of the cat”, in which iphone air was reduced by 2,000 dollars, 256 gb editions were added to the national supplement, with only 5499 dollars in hand。
The following day, apple's own flagship store in kyoto also announced that the iphone air was entitled to a 2000 coupon, and that the 256-gb version would be the lowest, plus the old subsidy in exchange for the new one, and only $5099。
It is true that the apple has only been reduced sharply to iphone air, and the iphone 17 series of mobile phones remains priced. The price of the new flagship, however, jumped sharply, and to some extent showed the deep anxiety of apples。
The lack of competitiveness makes it difficult for iphone air to persuade consumers to pay through brand premiums, and only through price concessions for sales. And as the competition for smartphones increases, more than the air type faces enormous downward pressure, so too is the digital series of apples。
01, sales below expectations, iphone air is long gone
Apples chose to launch iphone air mainly because of the poor performance of the plus mobile phone market. Data disclosed by digital blogger “digital chat points” show that, as at 15 june 2025, the market in mobile phones in china, iphone 16 plus, had a sales volume of about 800,000, or 7. 11 per cent of iphone 16 pro max。
With this in mind, apples have chosen the iphone air, which introduces the ultimate fibrous concept, to replace the plus type. In september 2025, apple held a fall-news launch to launch a light flag iphone air with a thickness of only 5. 6 mm and a weight of only 165 g, known as the “worst iphone to date”, at $799。
Although the iphone air can provide a remarkable sense of hold, it is also configured to achieve a very thinness - with only 48 million pixels, with no hyperwide angles and long focus; with a single speaker, with only a top-heart sound and a lack of stereo-enzyration; and with a 3149mah battery, with heavy use, which can easily generate continuous anxiety。
The iphone air was not red-hot because many of its configurations could not afford the flagship positioning. On 23 november 2025, nabila popal, senior research director of the idc, stated that the iphone air sales were only about one third of the maximum expected apple sales。
On 24 january 2026, “digital chat points” announced that there were currently less than 200,000 iphone air accumulators. In contrast, iphone 17 pro max, iphone 17 pro and iphone 17 were activated at approximately 8. 26 million, 4. 9 million and 4. 8 million respectively during the same period。
In order to stop damage in a timely manner, apples have requested that iphone air be cut off from the supply chain. In november 2025, the information quoted informed sources that apples had significantly reduced the production of iphone air and that it had been completely shut down by well-informed and fuscon around november。
In response, tianxiang international securities analyst guo ming dynamite commented that “the existing pro series and standard version of the machine (apples) are already well suited to the needs of most high-end users and that it is difficult to find new market compartments and positioning (from mini, plus to air's unsuccessful attempts to date)
Thus, the price of this iphone air is significantly down, not just as a regular marketing tool, but more like apples' impeccable choice to “de-stock” the machine in the context of sales pressure。
02, iphone 17, behind the heat, apples win their breathing opportunities with "inner rolls."
Although the iphone air type is not well sold, apples may not be dissatisfied with the 2025 mobile phone lines. Because, driven by the iphone 17 series, the sales of apple phones have risen。
According to idc data, in 2025, the q4 china mobile phone market produced 16 million apples, an increase of 21. 5 per cent over the same period。
As a result of the performance of the fourth quarter, even though china as a whole lost 0. 6 per cent in terms of total smartphone deliveries throughout 2025, the volume of apple phones increased by 4 per cent, reaching 46. 2 million, second only to china。
The sale of apple phones rose at q4 speed in 2025, of course, because the iphone 17 series won market popularity. The data disclosed by the rd watch show that, as of the second week of 2026, the iphone 17 series had a sales volume of 1,72677 thousand, with the cliff breaker ahead of a group of matrilineal flagships。
It should be noted, however, that the horizontal comparison of iphone 16 series, iphone 17 series pro and promax did not increase significantly, and the differences were mainly reflected in the standard version。
On 12 january 2026, the counterpoint disclosed that the iphone 17 standard version sold almost twice as much in the chinese market as the iphone 16。
The data disclosed by the “digital chat point” show that the iphone 17 standard version was sold at 4. 8 million as of january 2026. In contrast, the volume of the iphone 16 standard version as at april 2025 was only 4. 41 million。
Although the iphone 17 standard version has become explosive, the evolutionary path of the product hides a concern that cannot be ignored. Previously, the iphone series had evolved at its own pace because of its deep commercial moat, and the product configuration had been wrong。
For example, for the purpose of the flagship positioning of the toiphone pro series, the standard version and the plus version of the screen have not always supported high-brushes and have only been mounted on the flagship processor。
While this product strategy is conducive to maximizing profits, it has also severely undermined the market competitiveness of applephones in a context of a proliferation of android flagships, which has reduced consumer access。
According to idc data, from 2023 to 2024, the chinese mobile phone market saw the delivery of apples falling by 2. 2 per cent and 5. 4 per cent, respectively. In 2025, q2, the volume of apples delivered was only 9. 6 million, a decrease of 1. 3 per cent over the same period。
In order to save the market, the iphone 17 standard version no longer adheres to “introductive” positioning, but instead incorporates a number of flagship configurations。
On the screen, the iphone 17 standard version is aligned to the other three flagships, with the ltpo screen, supporting 1-1 120 hz promotion retrofit rate, full screen aod, with a peak of 3,000 nit. With regard to performance, the iphone 17 standard version, while not carrying the a19 pro processor, did not use the previous processor, but instead carried a19。
Although the iphone 17 standard has won the market by stacking the bottom configuration, it shows to some extent that apples have lost control of the competition - – in order to attract consumer attention, it had to follow the footsteps of the android flagship。
In response, lee nan, former vice-president of the himalayan science and technology, pointed out with blood and blood that “the current success of the iphone 17 series is mainly due to this sudden attack. But if the andreu camp were to fight, it would be 17, and 18,19 would sooner or later be defeated.”
03, the new product was "crushed" by the android flagship. Apple needs to be re-competitive
Once upon a time, iphone was the innovation pole of the smartphone market. Whether it is the original iphone multi-touch control technology, iphone 5s touch id, or the comprehensive screen sign introduced by iphone x, it has been replicated by a group of smartphone manufacturers。
Today, however, the innovation of apples and the ability to define their products have been reversed by domestic smartphone manufacturers. For example, the iphone air, also a light flagship, has many shortboards, while the pride of magic8 pro air can bring “superprosper experience”。
Magic8 pro air was released on 19 january 2026 with a height of only 6. 1 mm and a weight of 155 g, carrying 5500 mah high-energy density twilight lake cells, stereo speakers, three full-focal shots, and supporting ultrasound fingerprints, waterproofing p. P. 68+ip69 class, which was fixed at $4499。
The market performance of magic8 pro air was better than that of iphone air because of strong product configuration and relatively low prices. According to official sources, the glory of magic8 pro air is overselling iphone air on the day of the first sale。
In response to the price reduction of the iphone air, lim lin, minister of intelligence and life operations of china district, commented that “the iphone air's projected sales are slightly higher in the short term, although the price decrease is substantial, and do not change the basic face of the sales volume because it is a product that counters the demand of the vast majority of users... And it is not a question of price to return to light for a very short period of time and then to die completely...”
Not only is the light flag ship “slided” by the national manufacturer, but the upcoming roll-out of apple’s folding-screen mobile phones is not going to go beyond the flagships of oppo find n5。
According to the information received, apples are expected to launch the initial iphone in september 2026, with a horizontal interior design of 7. 8 inches and 5. 5 inches of inner screens, the cancellation of face id, the conversion of side-side touch id to support esim only, with a start-up price of $15,000 or more, and a high-end version of $20,000。
On 8 january 2026, a digital blogger, focus digital, quoted news from close to apples saying that apples had been bought into oppo find n5 to open up research, and that a number of internal samples had been made, “it was difficult to find a fracture level above oppo”。
On the other hand, according to the market dimension, the demand for folded-screen mobile phones has begun to slow due to the late arrival of apples. According to idc data, in 2025, china's output of folded screen mobile phones was about 10. 1 million, an increase of only 9. 2 per cent compared to the previous year's 30. 8 per cent growth rate。
Against the backdrop of a narrow market dividend, the folding of iphone lacks significant technological advantages and is highly priced, and the expected sales are not encouraging. In june 2025, guo mingliang stated that “a survey of several zero components revealed that the machine type iphone (the folding iphone) delivered millions of units in 2027 and 2028”
It is clear that the core challenge for the current apples is not market volatility, but that their long-accumulated commercial moats are gradually drying up as competition continues to increase. In this context, active participation in the inner volume of prices and configurations will only win short-term buffer space, which will ultimately be a stopgap solution to the symptoms and root causes。
For apples, the core of failure lies not in reactive responses to competition, but in building value barriers to high-end brands driven by technological innovation。
However, because of the habit of making “fast money”, apples may be difficult to quickly switch to “hard and right” roads。
