iPhone Air Depreciates 44% in 10 Weeks, Outpacing iPhone 17 Line

A new analysis of the used smartphone market reveals that Apple's iPhone Air has experienced the sharpest resale value decline among recent iPhone models, losing an average of 44.3 percent of its original price within the first 10 weeks after launch. In contrast, the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup has shown stronger value retention, with an average depreciation of 34.6 percent over the same period. The findings, based on trade-in data from more than 40 U.S. buyback companies, highlight a divergence in consumer demand for the ultra-slim iPhone Air compared to its counterparts in the series released last fall.

SellCell, which conducted the study, tracked real-time trade-in prices for devices in good condition, comparing them to manufacturers' suggested retail prices. The iPhone Air's losses varied by storage capacity: the 256GB model, starting at $999, dropped 40.3 percent; the 512GB version, with an MSRP of $1,199, fell 45 percent; and the 1TB configuration, priced at $1,399, saw the largest decline at 47.7 percent. This places the 1TB iPhone Air as the weakest performer in SellCell's dataset, which includes 52 iPhone configurations since the iPhone 14 series in 2022.