According to cellular network data from Ookla, the iPhone Air is about twice as popular compared to the iPhone 16 Plus, in the comparable launch period for the iPhone 17 and year-ago iPhone 16 lineup.
While the Air is seemingly the least popular model of the iPhone 17 generation, Apple will still consider it a relative success, as this report shows the Air has firmly eclipsed the sales performance of the outgoing Plus model.
Ookla’s data is sourced from crowdsourced cellular network data, including analytics gathered from real-world usage of the Speedtest app on iPhones.
The iPhone Air and iPhone Plus sales numbers is approximated by comparing the quantities of Speedtest samples using each model. For the iPhone 16 Plus, it comprised less than 3% of usage during the iPhone 16 launch window in late 2024. This trailed the base iPhone 16’s number of 5.9%, and far behind the popularity of the 16 Pro and Pro Max, which accounted for 34% and 56% respectively.
For the comparable period in 2026, the shares of the base iPhone 17 and Pro Max are largely unchanged compared to their iPhone 16 counterparts. The biggest jump is seen comparing Plus to Air year-over-year, with the Air taking 6.8% of usage, almost triple what the Plus achieved. This gain is seemingly at the expense of the 17 Pro, which dropped from 34.9% to 30.6%.
This puts the Air is in the same ballpark as the base iPhone 17. However, you have to assume that Air buyers are more likely to consist of tech enthusiasts and early adopters, who tend to upgrade as soon as the phones go on sale. As such, the gap between the Air and the base model may widen over time.
Nevertheless, these are positive numbers for the Air. Apple has attempted to establish a differentiated fourth model of iPhone for a while, experimenting with the Mini and Plus form factors. Ultimately, those models underperformed in the market. In contrast, the Air does seem to have carved out a worthwhile niche.
Ookla’s data also shows a stark segmentation of iPhone Air demand by geographic region. The above percentages relate to the domestic United States market. But the Air actually accounted for significantly higher shares in other countries, taking as much as 11.2% of the pie in South Korea. It was also popular in Japan, Sweden, and Singapore.
Finally, the iPhone Air has firmly beaten the rival Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge in terms of popularity. Domestically, the Air records more than 3x the samples of the S25 Edge.
Separately, the Ookla data also shows that Apple’s C1X modem found in the iPhone Air is a major advancement compared to the original C1. The Air’s download speeds on 5G are close to what the Qualcomm modem achieves in the iPhone 17 Pro models, ahead of how the C1 fares in the iPhone 16e.
In fact, it’s almost at performance parity in typical real-world conditions as far as download speeds are concerned, although it still falls behind in upload speeds. You can see more charts over on Ookla’s blog.
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