Air, edge, fold: finally smartphone upgrades really feel

Apple’s new iPhone 17 series has landed, and we have all seen the photos and videos of people standing up through the hundreds to buy new iPhones. This time, the Indian hype of the company is considerable – thank you for the most diversified smartphone setup of Apple in recent times. The move is important as Apple has been the fastest growing smartphone brand over the past six years, according to the Market data of IDC Fundanks, selling more than 3x the average price of a smartphone in India. As it increases in the market share, the approach becomes more diversified – the company now has several unique proposals in its portfolio that is not iterative in nature. This approach is similar to what Google and Samsung offers with their latest smartphone setup. Google currently has three different offers in terms of flagship smart experiences-the entry-level Pixel 10, a ‘Pro’ version with a large show, and a ‘fold’ variant that is the portfolio at the top. Samsung, meanwhile, has four different offers-a base galaxy S25, a large-screen galaxy S25 ultra, a slim Galaxy S25 rand, and its Galaxy Z foldable range. With the iPhone Air, Apple also takes a diversified approach-the iPhone 17 offers an upgrade to the basic features of a new Apple smartphone, the ‘pro’ variant that offers a bigger performance, and now a super-smart experiment that has been Apple’s first new phone design over the past five years. A new approach The new design bears fruit. Chinmoyee Kalita, a 38-year-old banker, said the brewing match among three of the world’s top consumer technology businesses made her look at new smartphone launches with greater interest rather than holding on to an older phone that works just well and not dated compared to the new products and their functions. ‘I’ve been an Android smartphone user for a long time, and for the past five years most phones have felt iterations of the same industrial prototype – with a little glass here and a few other extra features there. It’s only been the past year that I started watching a new smartphone – at least there are some new options to browse, ‘she added. Kalita is not the only one. Akash Kargupta, a 32-year-old corporate manager in Gurugram, said Apple’s new launch also had a similar impact on him. “The last new iPhone I bought was the iPhone 15, which felt good enough compared to what the iPhone 16 offered last year. But it seems the iPhone 17 offers much more this year, making it very interesting,” he said. Both Kalita and Kargupta consider the new devices, powered by their designed innovations. Kalita is considering one of Google’s new Pixel 10 devices, while Kargupta puts his eyes on the iPhone air. The renewed consumer interest in smartphones and telephone designs is driven by the businesses that approach industrialized devices with a new lens. After more than a decade, a pressure from Samsung, Oppo and now brought back Apple phones that are about 5 millimeters thick. According to experts, this is a breakdown in approach where buyers are no longer looking for new specifications and functions – but a revamped overall experience. In addition to the specifications, Prabhu Ram, vice president of the industry intelligence at market research firm Cybermedia, said this approach has been coming for a long time. ‘There would always be a glass ceiling that would incrementally result in new functions and specifications, until a drastically new breakthrough came into smartphones. As a result, we now have telephone makers who focus on design and stylistic approaches to attracting buyers – who are also on this new approach, because for the first time in the past a few years, the new phones look and feel, “he said. The move was reflected by Apple last week, which used an unusual approach with the design of the iPhone air. The company’s latest smartphone uses a single camera on its phone, a considerable hump on the back and launched it with a company-designed Power Bank to go with it. Commentators on social media platforms said the approach is different from Apple, which focuses on uniform relationships and flat surfaces, about horrible design approaches. However, consumers like it. Anisha Jennifer Sharma, a 37-year-old corporate professional and a long-time Apple user, is among them. “I loved how beautiful the iPhone air looked like, and although the Pro is the one that shows all the features of Apple, it’s the air that stood out at launch -and has been right on my radar since then my next Apple phone,” says Sharma, who has been an iPhone loyalist for the past 15 years. It is that Apple would grow almost 30% in iPhone sales this year. The new approach, both analysts and consumers, probably saw a renewed game of interest in flagship smartphones. With the iPhone air leading the new set of flagship devices in terms of unique consumer approaches, this year may be the first in more than five that the design takes a middle stage, over functions.