Participants in Apple’s new iPhone model presentations should try out the new Thinner iPhone Air.
Andrej Sokolow | Photo Alliance | Getty Images
apple The company said it has postponed the launch of a new iPhone Air model in China due to regulatory issues surrounding the design of the ESIM.
The Chinese wireless carrier needs a special license from the government before using ESIM to sell new devices, and the airline has not yet secured its approval, Apple said. The company added that it is working to make the devices available in China as soon as possible.
Apple announced the iPhone Air at its annual event Tuesday. The 5.6mm thick device marks the first major new iPhone design since the iPhone X was introduced in 2017. The iPhoneAir does not support physical SIM cards and instead features an ESIM built into the device.
CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Jim Kramer on Friday that ESIM would allow the device to still provide a “great” battery life.
“It’s only ESIM, so we were able to take the battery and extend the battery into the area where it used to have physical cells,” Cook said.
The company previously said that the iPhone Air will be available for pre-orders in the region at 2am on Friday, September 19th at 2am on EST.
As of Friday morning, the iPhone Air product page on Apple’s China website stated that “release information will be updated later.”
The website says that China Mobile, China Communications and China Unicom will provide ESIM support for iPhone Air.
– CNBC’s Steve Kovach contributed to this report.
