Apple’s iPhone 17 lineup has, by all appearances, proven a hit with consumers so far. But the iPhone Air so far has been missing from one of Apple’s biggest markets: China. Fortunately, the iPhone Air’s arrival in China is almost here.
iPhone Air pre-orders open this Friday, shipping next week
When Apple unveiled the iPhone Air, it said the device would become available for pre-order on Friday, September 12 in a wide global launch.
China was originally announced as a launch country, but Apple later had to change its plans.
Due to regulatory issues surrounding the device’s eSIM-only design, the iPhone Air’s launch in China was delayed indefinitely.
Now, per CEO Tim Cook’s post on Weibo, Apple is nearly ready to launch the device.
iPhone Air pre-orders will begin this Friday, October 17 at 9:00 a.m. for users in mainland China.
iPhone Air will then ship to Chinese users on Wednesday, October 22.
It is still unknown how the Chinese market will respond to the eSIM-only model. Physical SIMs are more commonplace there than in many other parts of the world.
However, the timing of the launch does provide a couple weeks worth of data for Apple to highlight in its next quarterly earnings call on October 30, if it wants to.
That earnings report will cover the quarter ending September 30, but it’s likely that Apple will get asked by analysts about how market reception in China has looked so far.
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