After a delay of more than a month, Apple is ready to bring the iPhone Air — its slimmest iPhone ever — to China.
During September's "Awe Dropping" Apple Event, the company announced that preorders for the iPhone Air would open globally on Friday, September 12. However, when the date arrived, one major market was conspicuously missing from the list: China.
China was originally slated to join the September 12 preorders for Apple's "slimmest iPhone ever." However, Apple delayed the rollout after facing setbacks in securing Chinese regulatory approval for its eSIM.
Now, over a month later, Apple appears ready to begin iPhone Air preorders in the region. First rumored by According to Jiemian and announced by Tim Cook, sales will open in mainland China on Friday, October 17, at 9:00 a.m. local time.
Devices were expected to ship on Wednesday, October 22. This would also be the date that the iPhone Air would be available to purchase in-store.
Tim Cook announcing the availability of iPhone Air in China
Tim Cook confirmed these details in his first-ever livestream interview on Douyin, the original Chinese version of TikTok.
Apple's slimmest iPhone still has something to prove
The launch date precedes Apple's October 30 earnings call. That would give Apple time to assess how well the iPhone Air does in the Chinese market.
It's still unclear how well the device will perform in China. Physical SIM cards remain the standard there, which could affect how quickly users adopt it.
The iPhone 17 lineup, however, has done quite well in China. After just one minute of preorders opening in China, sales through major retailer JD.com passed the first-day preorder volume for the iPhone 16 series.
Updated October 13, 10:26 AM ET: Tim Cook's Weibo account announced the availability of the iPhone Air on Friday.
Updated October 14, 7:05 AM ET: Tim Cook also announced the iPhone Air in his first livestream on Douyin.
