Apple: Bloomberg reveals what’s really going on with the iPhone Air 2 and details iPhone 18 launch

The iPhone Air did not break the negative trend of the iPhone Mini and iPhone Plus models and has not been a major commercial success, according to numerous reports from the past few weeks. However, Bloomberg’s Apple analyst Mark Gurman sees the thinnest iPhone ever mainly as a trial run for the iPhone Fold, which is expected to launch in 2026 alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max and will rely on many of these technologies and components. Gurman believes the iPhone Air is very important for Apple’s supply chain, and that low sales numbers are just a secondary issue. This also explains why the handset was not priced particularly aggressively compared to the iPhone 17 Pro.

Morevoer, Gurman dismisses rumors that a successor could get a dual camera. According to his information, the biggest upgrade of the iPhone Air 2 will be the more efficient Apple A20 chipset that’s built on the 2nm process and should result in longer battery life. The analyst does not expect a dual camera on the Air until it can be adopted from the iPhone Fold. Once again, Gurman reiterates that we will see the iPhone 18 launch in two waves. The first one contains the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and iPhone 18 Fold, all of which are expected to arrive as usual in September 2026. The second wave includes the iPhone 18, iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2, which will follow later in spring 2027.

The fact that Apple did not name the iPhone Air the iPhone 17 Air gives the company more freedom to release a successor on a different schedule, and the second generation likely might hit the market one and a half years after the original. Gurman stresses that this wasn’t caused by disappointing sales numbers and was planned right from the beginning. This staggered iPhone launch is expected to continue for several years, including the anniversary year 2027, which is when the redesigned iPhone (potentially named iPhone 20) with curved glass and an under display camera is expected to debut.