The iPhone Air is more than twice as successful as the iPhone 16 Plus
Ookla, the global network intelligence firm, has published a new report taking a look at Apple’s new C1X modem. And while the report mostly deals with how good Cupertino’s new modem is in the wild, one thing we noticed was that it also showed just how popular the iPhone Air really is.
The iPhone Air was released in place of the previous ‘Plus’ model, with Apple dropping the ‘large’ alternative for a ‘slim’ model instead. And despite the move towards a design-centric iPhone, it seems that globally the iPhone Air racks up 6.8% of all iPhone 17 models in use. Ookla measured this based on devices that used their Speedtest.net service, finding that while the Pro and Pro Max continue to dominate market share, the iPhone Air’s 6.8% is more than double that of the iPhone 16 Plus’ 2.9% share of the iPhone 16 lineup.
A large chunk of the iPhone Air’s rise appears to have been driven by wealthier Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan and Singapore, with Sweden and Italy making up the rest of the top 5. As for Malaysia specifically, the iPhone Air makes up about 4.3% of the iPhone 17 lineup market share.
Ookla suggests that this could be explained by a geographical divide in consumer behaviour, comparing regions that focus more on hardware and ‘power users versus countries that look more at design. Another factor is that the Malaysian smartphone scene is quite price sensitive, just like other countries with lower iPhone Air numbers like Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia and India.
Nevertheless, it seems that Apple’s gamble to move away from a large base iPhone to a slimmer, design-focus one has mostly worked in its favour. They even achieved this without eating too much into its Pro models, with the iPhone 17 Pro Max still holding 55.5% of market share, while the iPhone 17 Pro saw a small drop to 30.6%, likely from users switching to the iPhone Air. Even the base iPhone 17 saw a rise of market share to 7%, up from the 5.9% that the iPhone 16 held compared to its stablemates.
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