The iPhone Air reaches one year on sale next month, and Apple is now closer to launching its successor than it is to the original's debut. On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss what's next for the device.


The first-generation model has had a difficult run. A KeyBanc Capital Markets survey found virtually no demand for the device within weeks of its September 2025 launch, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that suppliers were asked to cut capacity by more than 80% between launch and early 2026, and Luxshare and Foxconn both wound down production, leaving the phone believed to be entirely out of manufacture. Apple discounted it heavily in March, and SellCell data put its ten-week depreciation at 44.3% on average, against 34.6% for the iPhone 17 series. The Weibo leaker known as "Digital Chat Station" said in May that the device had barely surpassed 700,000 activations even after multiple rounds of price cuts.

A single rear camera left a $999 phone looking less capable than the cheaper ‌iPhone 17‌, which has two, and the absence of the iPhone 17 Pro's vapor chamber cooling means the Air runs warmer under load. It also lacks stereo speakers. Battery life falls short of a full day for many users, mitigated in part by the dedicated MagSafe battery accessory Apple sells alongside it. With the ‌iPhone 17 Pro‌ starting at $1,099, the Air occupies a $100 gap that gave buyers little reason to stop there.

Almost every change rumored for the second-generation model targets one of those points. Bloomberg reported in June that Apple will add an Ultra Wide lens alongside the existing 48-megapixel Fusion camera, and that the dual-lens design has reached advanced testing with the same exterior as the current model save for the extra lens.

Almost everything other than the battery sits inside the ‌iPhone Air‌'s camera plateau, and Apple has reportedly asked suppliers for an ultra-thin Face ID module to free up space. The company also plans to adopt Samsung's CoE display technology, which is thinner and brighter than the current panel and debuts first on the foldable iPhone. Digital Chat Station expects a 3,500mAh battery, up from 3,149mAh, and The Information reported that Apple wants the device to be lighter and to gain vapor chamber cooling despite the added hardware.

The device will also likely feature the A20 Pro chip, binned in some form like its predecessor, along with Apple's second-generation N2 wireless networking chip, the C2 modem, and 12GB of RAM, unchanged from the current model. Externally, little is expected to change beyond the additional rear camera, but Pu expects a slightly smaller Dynamic Island, in line with the wider iPhone 18 lineup. A lavender color option could replace Sky Blue.

Pricing is the biggest open question. The Information reported that Apple is considering a lower price for the second model, but the surrounding lineup is moving too. Pu expects the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max to cost $250 to $300 more than the current Pro models owing to 2nm silicon and memory costs, and the foldable iPhone is rumored to start somewhere between roughly $2,000 and $2,500. A widened gap between the Air and the Pro tier could change the calculation that undermined the original, particularly once the camera disparity with the standard iPhone disappears.

The leaker "Fixed Focus Digital" claimed in April that Apple will push through at least two generations of the device no matter how poorly it sells, a position consistent with Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who expects the Air 2 in spring 2027 alongside the standard iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e. Nikkei Asia reported in January that no second-generation Air was expected before 2027 at the earliest.

Apple's confidence in the fall lineup appears to be growing in the meantime. The company reportedly told suppliers to prepare roughly 10 million foldable iPhones this year, up from an earlier forecast of seven to eight million, and has booked parts for around 80 million smartphones in the second half of 2026. Samsung, meanwhile, says the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8 drew 1.44 million pre-orders in South Korea across seven days, a company record, with the redesigned Z Fold 8 accounting for close to half of them.

The ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌, ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, and foldable iPhone are expected in September, and Apple has already begun preparing for the event, opening a lottery for U.S. retail employees to staff it. The MacRumors Show has its own YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed to keep up with new episodes and clips.



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If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up to hear our discussion about the iOS 27 beta, talking through our experiences with Siri AI, Liquid Glass refinements, and more.

Subscribe to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as Kayci Lacob, Kevin Nether, John Gruber, Mark Gurman, Jon Prosser, Luke Miani, Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Sam Kohl, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

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This article, "The MacRumors Show: iPhone Air 2 - What Changes After a Difficult First Year" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple has told a federal court that it hasn't heard from Jon Prosser's legal team in a month, as discovery drags on in its trade secret lawsuit against the leaker.


In a joint status report filed on Wednesday in the Northern District of California, Apple's attorneys said they had made repeated attempts to reach Prosser's counsel about outstanding discovery issues without success. From the filing:

Apple and Mr. Prosser have worked to advance this case through limited discovery. Mr. Prosser provided documents and communications to Apple, and sat for a deposition on June 16, 2026. Unfortunately, Apple last heard from Mr. Prosser's counsel on July 6th, 2026, despite repeated attempts to communicate and follow up on outstanding discovery issues. There still appear to be deficiencies in Mr. Prosser's productions, and Apple has notified Mr. Prosser's counsel of those issues.

Shortly before the report was filed, Prosser's attorney told Apple's legal team that the delay likely stems from Prosser welcoming his second child and attending to the newborn's care. The attorney indicated he would find dates for Prosser to provide the remaining discovery materials.

Co-defendant Michael Ramacciotti, who Apple says accessed the confidential device at the center of the case, has continued cooperating throughout the case. He agreed to supplement his interrogatory responses and sit for a second deposition.

Apple sued Prosser and Ramacciotti in July 2025, accusing them of misappropriating trade secrets tied to then-unreleased iOS 26 software, including the Liquid Glass redesign, by accessing a development iPhone belonging to Apple engineer Ethan Lipnik.

Ramacciotti cooperated with the case from the outset, but Prosser initially missed several deadlines to respond, leading the court to enter a default against him in October 2025 that barred him from contesting Apple's allegations. Prosser's attorney successfully petitioned to have that default set aside in June 2026, and Prosser filed a formal answer in the case on July 2. In it, he admitted joining a FaceTime call in which Ramacciotti showed him unreleased iOS features running on the development device, but denied that what he saw constituted trade secrets and denied knowing the device belonged to Lipnik.

Apple is seeking damages as well as a permanent injunction barring Prosser from disclosing its trade secrets again. Such an order could stop him from covering unreleased Apple products at all, which forms a significant part of his YouTube channel. Ramacciotti's second deposition is set for September, and all three parties expect to file another status update with the court on October 7.
This article, "Apple Flags Discovery Delays in Its Lawsuit Against Jon Prosser" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple captured 65% of the global premium smartphone market in the first half of 2026, as the wider premium segment's share of overall smartphone sales climbed to a record 29%.


That's according to Counterpoint Research's Handset Model Sales Tracker, which tracks smartphones with a wholesale average selling price of $600 or more. Apple's premium segment revenue grew 9% year-over-year in the first half of 2026, which Counterpoint attributed to strong sales of the iPhone 17 lineup, particularly the base model.

Even with that growth, Apple's share of the premium segment has slipped from 74% in the first half of 2022. Counterpoint pins the decline on intensifying competition in China, the largest premium smartphone market, where Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have all sharpened their flagship offerings, pulling more Chinese consumers toward domestic premium brands.

Across the broader premium segment, unit sales grew 5% year-over-year in the first half of 2026, with the segment's overall market share up from 25% in the first half of 2025 and 20% in the first half of 2022. Counterpoint says the latest gains stem largely from rising memory and component costs, which have hit low- and mid-tier phones harder than flagship models.


Premium brands, including Apple, were better positioned to absorb the higher costs through wider margins and fewer promotions, helping sustain demand even as the broader market grew more challenging. The share gains between the first half of 2022 and the first half of 2025, by contrast, were driven mainly by a broader premiumization trend as consumers traded up to higher-end devices.

Counterpoint Research said the narrowing price gap between mid-tier and premium phones is accelerating that shift, making flagship devices, including older or discounted iPhones, a more attractive upgrade for consumers:

As mid-segment Android smartphone prices rise, the price gap with premium devices, especially older or discounted flagship models, is narrowing. This trend makes flagship smartphones a better upgrade option for consumers. To support this shift, OEMs are expanding financing, trade-in and buyback programs to improve affordability. Samsung has also expanded its Galaxy Forever program to several markets to make flagship devices more accessible.

Samsung remains the only other brand in Apple's league, holding 19% of the premium segment after 3% year-over-year growth, despite a later launch for the Galaxy S26 series. Behind the two leaders, Chinese brands showed the sharpest growth off a much smaller base: OPPO grew 69% on the strength of its Find X9 series, while vivo grew 20% as the X300 series outperformed its predecessor.

Counterpoint expects Apple to keep its lead alongside Samsung, citing Apple's strength in developed markets, its integrated ecosystem, and its brand value, even as Huawei and Xiaomi are seen as well positioned to keep gaining share in China. Counterpoint added that premiumization "will be the key strategy in the smartphone industry as the focus shifts from shipment volumes to value and profit maximization."
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Apple announced the original Mac Pro 20 years ago today, with the anniversary landing five months after the company discontinued the machine for good.


On August 7, 2006, Apple unveiled the first Mac Pro, powered by two dual-core 64-bit Xeon processors that Apple said made it up to twice as fast as the Power Mac G5 it replaced. It was the last Mac to complete Apple's transition from PowerPC to Intel chips, and it launched with PCI Express expansion slots and a $2,499 starting price.

The Mac Pro quickly became the machine of choice for video editors, audio engineers, and other creative professionals, particularly those running Final Cut Studio, the editing suite Apple positioned squarely at the same audience. Its four internal drive bays, tool-free case, and PCIe expansion slots made it easy to configure for demanding workloads, and Apple kept the pace of updates brisk in its early years, adding an eight-core configuration in April 2007 and following with a refreshed base model in January 2008. That steady cadence of upgrades continued through 2012, a sharp contrast to the long droughts that would define the machine's later years.

The Mac Pro remained as Apple's professional flagship for almost the next two decades since its launch. That positioning kept the machine niche, and Apple's attention to it was inconsistent.

The clearest example came in 2013, when Apple replaced the classic tower with a radically redesigned cylindrical model nicknamed the "trash can" Mac Pro, built around a single central "unified thermal core." The trash can went unrefreshed for six years, a lifetime in computing terms, before Apple apologized to its pro user base and essentially admitted the design was a mistake.

In a 2017 interview, Craig Federighi said Apple had "designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner," having built the machine around GPU workloads that never materialized as broadly as the company expected. A more conventional tower, with eight PCIe slots, arrived in 2019.

Even after that redesign, the Mac Pro's position kept eroding. The Mac Studio delivered nearly identical performance in a smaller, far cheaper package. Once the Mac Pro moved to Apple silicon with the M2 Ultra chip in June 2023, add-in cards like the Afterburner lost support, leaving PCIe expansion as close to its only remaining edge over the Studio, a slim advantage for a machine that started at $6,999.

Apple discontinued the Mac Pro on March 26, 2026, pulling it from its website. The company said it has no plans to design a new version, and no future model is coming.

The announcement landed three months before Apple raised prices on 14 products, including Macs and iPads, to offset the rising cost of memory chips. The ‌Mac Studio‌'s M3 Ultra configuration jumped $1,300, from $3,999 to $5,299, while the entry-level MacBook Pro rose $300, from $1,699 to $1,999.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that "price increases are unavoidable," adding that Apple had tried to shield customers from rising memory costs but "the situation has become unsustainable." Cook likened the shortage to "a hundred-year flood," saying he had "never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years."

Applying that same roughly 33% jump seen on the M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ to the Mac Pro's $6,999 starting price would have pushed a base configuration above $9,300, with no extra RAM, storage, or GPU cores factored in, a price unlikely to move many units of a machine that was already selling in small numbers.

With the Mac Pro gone, the Mac Studio is now Apple's most powerful desktop, though it lacks the tower's internal PCIe expansion slots. Apple's next ‌Mac Studio‌ refresh is expected to bring the M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips to the machine.
This article, "Mac Pro Turns 20 Today, Five Months After Apple Killed It" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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