The iPhone is stuck in a very successful rut

Steve Jobs took the Henry Ford approach to listening to customers, which is to say that he unashamedly didn’t listen. “If I’d asked customers what they wanted,” the carmaker is reported to have said, “they would have asked for a faster horse.” And tech fans in the 1980s might have asked for a faster IBM. But Jobs’ Apple had other ideas.

The problem is, customers can be quite insistent. Earlier this fall, Apple launched another bold and groundbreaking product in the form of the iPhone Air. However, multiple reports suggest it’s sold very poorly, so poorly, in fact, that the company is believed to have cancelled plans to launch a 2nd-gen model in 2026. And last week, another report claimed the iPhone 16e is also a flop as the “attempt to lower prices has failed.” I doubt that the 16e’s problem was being too cheap, but we’ll come back to that later.

Figuring out what customers want before they do is a lovely idea, but ultimately, they’re the ones with the casting vote. You can tell them what they really want is an ultra-slim smartphone as many times as you like, but you can’t force them to buy the thing.

Which leaves Apple in a strange position. The most traditional iPhones—the 17, the 17 Pro, and the 17 Pro Max from the current generation—are selling just fine. It’s the outliers and experiments that are struggling. And that’s been the case for a while: the mini format didn’t work, the Plus format didn’t work, and now the Air and e formats don’t seem to be working either. The iPhone is a product of era-defining commercial dominance, but only within quite narrow parameters. And whenever Apple tries to break out of those parameters, it fails.

Based on recent sales activity, it would appear that what customers want from their iPhone is a medium to large screen, a state-of-the-art camera, excellent battery life, and premium processing power. What they’ll settle for is a basic phone at a bargain price. But an iPhone that compromises on those key criteria for the sake of a middling price and AI support (like the 16e) or an absurdly slim chassis (like the Air) is going to be given the shortest of shrifts.

In the short term, this is obviously fine, and both Apple and the iPhone line remain enormously profitable. But the fact that the company keeps trying to find the elusive fourth format shows how aware it is of the long-term danger.

The traditional iPhone is clearly what customers want now, but they won’t want it forever. Or rather, Apple won’t be able to keep making noticeable improvements to that format forever. The yearly refreshes barely register as it is, and at a certain point, customers are going to realise that they don’t need to pay big to get what they want from a smartphone. They can just hold on to their existing handset for longer, buy a cheaper model from Apple’s range, or worst of all, buy at a lower price from an Android manufacturer. Apple will need to woo them with something new.

And despite the failures, the company must keep trying. We don’t know what will come next, but Apple won’t prosper as a business if it can’t grasp the opportunity when it arrives. With the trinity of boring iPhones bringing in the money, the loose-cannon fourth model is free to experiment unprofitably. And to find the key to the smartphone’s future, whether that means lower prices, thinner handsets, folding or curved screens, AI, or something else entirely. Just don’t ask me what that something is. I’m waiting for Apple to figure it out.

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.

Trending: Top stories

Five years later, the M5 chip just made Apple silicon exciting again.

2026 is shaping up to be the year of the Mac, reports Roman Loyola.

Mahmoud Itani rounds up 9 AI features you can use on your iPhone without enabling Apple Intelligence.

From iPod Hi-Fi to iPhone Pocket: Apple’s most head-scratching products ever.

Wait, writes the Macalope. Is Apple actually going to make the Mac everyone wants?

The one thing Vision Pro is great at is basically guaranteed to fail.

Podcast of the week

In November 2020, the M1 chip made its debut and it changed the Mac for the better. That’s on this week’s episode of the Macworld Podcast.

You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.

Reviews corner

• Adobe Acrobat Studio review: The most popular PDF editor goes all in on AI.
• Mackie CR3.5BT review: Compact audio monitors at a good price.
• Best over-ear headphones: Top AirPods Max alternatives.

The rumor mill

Report: The next iPhone Air update is up in the air due to terrible sales.

The iPhone 18 Pro Max, meanwhile, will reportedly be the heaviest iPhone ever.

New HomePod mini imminent? Major retailer calls current model ‘discontinued.’

Video of the week

A brand-new MacBook for just $699? Find out more in our latest short. You can enjoy all our short-form video on TikTok or Instagram.

Software updates, bugs, and problems

PSA: Dozens of critical security updates are waiting for your iPhone and Mac.

Will your iPhone get iOS 27? We think we have the answer.

See how well macOS 26.2 Tahoe’s new ‘Edge Light’ works in the dark.

You can now use your iPhone as your Digital ID–here’s how.

And with that, we’re done for this week’s Apple Breakfast. If you’d like to get regular roundups, sign up for our newsletters, including our new email from The Macalope–an irreverent, humorous take on the latest news and rumors from a half-man, half-mythical Mac beast. You can also follow us on Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, or X for discussion of breaking Apple news stories. See you next Monday, and stay Appley.