The iPhone Air Hasn’t Been Cleared for Sale in China Yet
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In an interesting but not entirely surprising twist, it seems that Apple’s shiny and groundbreaking new iPhone Air won’t be going on sale in China any time soon.
Pre-orders for Apple’s new iPhone 17 models opened today in 63 countries around the world, as promised, and the iPhone Air was supposed to appear in the same list of countries, but when the clock struck today in China, it turns out it was launching in one fewer country than Apple had hoped.
The reason for this omission wasn’t entirely unexpected: the lack of a physical SIM card slot in the iPhone Air.
As I explained earlier this month, China has always been a challenge for eSIM-only iPhones:
While most countries don’t have a legal requirement that devices have a physical SIM card slot, China is the notable exception. Although there’s no explicit law or regulation, the regulatory framework effectively creates a de facto restriction, as all smartphones sold in China must obtain a Network Access License (NAL) and a State Radio Regulation of China (SRRC) Type Approval Certificate from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The process is somewhat opaque, but most analysts believe the MIIT has created a barrier to eSIM adoption by refusing to approve any devices that don’t include a physical SIM.
This has been such a problem that China remains the only place in the world where Apple has ever sold an iPhone with two physical SIM card slots, and no eSIM at all.
While Apple created its first eSIM-only iPhone in 2022 with the iPhone 14, those models were only sold in the US. This is the first year that any eSIM-only models are being sold elsewhere, but even those are confined to North America, Japan, and the Middle East. The iPhone 17 models sold in the rest of the world, including China, still have a physical SIM card slot.
The iPhone Air is the notable exception. It would have been virtually impossible to create a 5.6 mm iPhone with a physical SIM slot; however, Apple clearly decided it was still worth releasing it into markets where eSIMs might be less widely available. That would leave out some potential customers in those countries, but a few customers are better than none.
However, China is a unique case, as it’s the only country where there’s a de facto requirement for regulatory approval. The country’s regulator has approved eSIM-only IoT devices and smartwatches, including the Apple Watch, and it has publicly stated that it has been studying the use of eSIM technology for smartphones, but it has yet to approve one. The iPhone Air would have been the first.
It was a bit surprising when China was included on the list of countries where Apple announced it would be selling the iPhone Air, but the assumption was that it had cleared the necessary regulatory hurdles. However, it seems that it may still have a few hoops to jump through.
According to the South China Morning Post, Apple updated the iPhone Air ordering details on its mainland Chinese website, replacing the original September 12 pre-order and September 19 in-store dates with a rather vague “release information to be updated later.”
Although Apple now appears to have all three state-owned carriers on board to embrace the eSIM-only iPhone Air, adding China Mobile and China Telecom to its original arrangement with China Unicom, the MIIT still hasn’t given Apple or the carriers its blessing to sell the eSIM-only model.
Apple told the Post and other Chinese media outlets that it’s “working closely with regulatory authorities to bring it to China as soon as possible,” but remains non-committal about when that will happen. Chinese carriers have also scrubbed their websites of previous announcements that promised to launch their eSIM service on September 19, in time for the release of the iPhone Air.
Another aspect of the problem is that, while Apple reportedly began training European carrier partners on eSIM support earlier this month, many Apple resellers in China have yet to receive similar training, according to another report by the Post. At the time, many leakers believed Apple wouldn’t even try to launch the iPhone Air in China this month.
This also isn’t just about selling the iPhone Air; Chinese telecom operators are equally bound by the MIIT’s rules, which means they won’t be allowed to activate an iPhone Air even if it’s purchased in another country. This may not change, as the Post notes that it will discourage consumers from buying an iPhone from overseas to access Apple Intelligence, which remains unavailable in China.
