Apple’s iPhone Air was supposed to bring fresh excitement to the Cupertino giant’s smartphone lineup. However, the early journey has been nothing more than a nightmare for the company. Following the weak performance of the iPhone mini and iPhone Plus series, many were hoping that the iPhone Air would break such a pattern. Instead, the phone is now being seen as another major disappointment. Recent reports show that its sales of the iPhone Air are far below expectations, and on top of that, the resale value of the device has also dropped much faster than what Apple phones usually experience.
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For Indian readers who follow Apple products closely, this is surprising because iPhones generally hold their value well. However, the weak early performance of the iPhone Air has raised questions about whether Apple misjudged what customers wanted this year.
A recent study from SellCell looked at how the value of the iPhone 17 series changed over ten weeks based on trade-in prices. The findings were collected from forty buyback companies in the United States. The results suggest that the iPhone Air has become one of the fastest depreciating Apple phones seen in years. Depending on the storage option, the device has already lost between 40 and 47.7% of its original price. This is unusually high for a model that is so new to the market.
The base version of the iPhone Air with 256GB storage is priced at $999. Within weeks of its launch, it has become cheaper by 40.3% in the used market. The 512GB version, originally sold at $1,199, has lost about 45 percent of its value. The biggest drop is seen in the 1TB model. It was launched at $1,399, but its resale price now shows a fall of 47.7%. In simple words, buyers in the United States can now find this top model for about $668 in the secondhand market.
The trend is similar to what happened with the iPhone 16 Plus last year. That model with 128GB storage lost around 41.6% of its value in the same ten-week period. Even the standard iPhone 16 lost $44.2 during that time. Still, the fall seen with the iPhone Air is more worrying because this model was meant to offer something fresh to buyers.
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These weak numbers could just be a sign that buyers did not find enough compelling reasons to adopt the iPhone Air over others. If this trend continues, the iPhone Air may soon be remembered as one of Apple’s biggest mistakes in recent years. For Indian buyers who often wait for price cuts or trade-in offers, this situation also shows how uncertain the value of new models can be just shortly after launch.