Looking back at 2025, Oliver’s tech picks reveal a year of bold experimentation and mixed results. The iPhone Air emerged as the standout device with its revolutionary 5.64mm profile, while next-generation earbuds redefined wireless audio. Most intriguingly, Apple offered its first real glimpse of the foldable iPhone future that’s set to arrive in 2026.

The year 2025 proved to be a pivotal moment for Apple’s product strategy, with recent leaks confirming work on dozens of unreleased devices. Internal software reveals showed Apple’s ambitious roadmap extending through 2027, including everything from home accessories to AI smart glasses. These revelations perfectly illustrate the experimental spirit that defined 2025—a year when Apple wasn’t just iterating on existing products, but actively exploring entirely new categories. The company’s development timeline suggests spring 2026 will bring major updates to iPads, Macs, and home products, while fall 2026 is earmarked for the highly anticipated foldable iPhone debut.

The iPhone Air phenomenon: when less became more

Apple’s thinnest iPhone ever made the biggest statement of 2025, despite facing significant market challenges. At just 5.64mm thick and weighing only 165 grams, the iPhone Air represented a radical design philosophy that prioritized form over traditional function. The device featured a single 48-megapixel camera, titanium frame, and 6.5-inch Super Retina XDR display with 120Hz ProMotion refresh rate.

What made this engineering achievement truly remarkable was how Apple reimagined internal architecture for ultra-thin design. The A19 Pro chip—albeit with a 5-core GPU instead of the Pro’s 6-core configuration—delivered flagship performance while fitting into impossibly tight constraints. Apple’s new C1X modem proved 30% more power-efficient than previous generations, demonstrating that thinness didn’t have to mean sacrificing functionality entirely.

However, the Air’s market reception told a sobering story about consumer priorities versus technological achievement. Reports indicated disappointing sales led Apple to drastically cut component orders, with suppliers like Foxconn dismantling production lines by November. The $999 starting price positioned it uncomfortably close to the $1,099 iPhone 17 Pro, which offered superior battery life and a triple-lens camera system. The poor reception forced Apple to delay the second-generation iPhone Air while reconsidering the design approach.

The industry-wide implications proved even more telling. Rival manufacturers like Xiaomi and Vivo canceled similar projects, recognizing that consumers weren’t ready to sacrifice functionality for aesthetics alone. Yet the Air’s engineering breakthroughs—particularly in component miniaturization and thermal management—would prove crucial for Apple’s future ambitions.

Audio evolution: earbuds that changed everything

While specific details about Oliver’s preferred earbuds remain limited in available sources, 2025 marked a watershed moment for wireless audio innovation. The broader industry saw major advances in spatial audio, improved noise cancellation, and health monitoring features. Apple’s ecosystem approach continued to dominate, with seamless integration across devices becoming increasingly important for user experience.

The real transformation wasn’t just about better sound quality—though that improved significantly too. Features like Center Stage technology made video calls feel more natural, automatically adjusting framing and focus as users moved. Dual Capture capabilities allowed content creators to record from multiple perspectives simultaneously, turning everyday earbuds into sophisticated production tools. Apple’s focus on health monitoring through audio devices suggested future iterations would incorporate advanced biometric sensors for everything from heart rate monitoring to stress detection.

What’s particularly noteworthy is how 2025’s audio innovations laid groundwork for the broader ecosystem integration we’re seeing today. Industry trends pointed toward longer battery life, improved call quality, and enhanced environmental awareness features becoming standard across premium wireless earbuds. The shift represented more than incremental improvement—it marked audio accessories evolving into genuine health and productivity companions that seamlessly connect to Apple’s expanding device ecosystem.

Foldable iPhone teaser: glimpsing tomorrow’s technology

The most exciting revelation of 2025 wasn’t a released product but a promise of what’s coming. Apple’s foldable iPhone development reached a critical milestone, with internal codename V68 confirming serious progress on the book-style folding device. The rumored iPhone Fold will feature a 5.3-inch external display and 7.7-inch inner screen, with pricing expected between $2,000 and $2,500.

What sets Apple’s approach apart from existing foldables is their apparent solution to the industry’s biggest challenge: the screen crease. Technical specifications suggest virtually eliminating the screen crease through liquid metal hinge technology. The device will reportedly use titanium construction with dual 48-megapixel rear cameras and Apple’s second-generation C2 modem—representing a significant leap forward in both materials engineering and manufacturing precision.

Here’s where the iPhone Air’s contribution becomes clear: Mass production is planned for the second half of 2026, positioning it as the flagship innovation for Apple’s fall 2026 lineup alongside the iPhone 18 Pro series. The Air’s engineering challenges—cramming components into impossibly thin spaces—directly informed the foldable’s design approach. Essentially, the Air served as a real-world prototype for half of a foldable phone, teaching Apple crucial lessons about component placement, thermal management, and structural integrity that would prove essential for the folding mechanism.

What this means for Apple’s future direction

Oliver’s 2025 tech selections illuminate Apple’s strategic pivot toward experimental form factors and premium positioning, but the lessons learned extend far beyond individual product success or failure. The iPhone Air’s market struggles demonstrated that consumers aren’t yet ready to sacrifice functionality for ultra-thin designs, yet the engineering breakthroughs achieved in pursuit of that thinness will benefit generations of future products.

What’s fascinating is how Apple approached 2025 as a learning laboratory rather than just another product cycle. The Air’s miniaturization techniques directly enable the foldable iPhone’s complex internal architecture. The audio evolution provides seamless ecosystem integration that makes switching between devices nearly invisible. Even the market rejection of ultra-thin design taught Apple valuable lessons about balancing innovation with practical user needs.

Industry analysts predict 30% year-over-year growth in foldables if Apple enters the market, suggesting the company’s patient approach to new form factors may prove prescient. The combination of incremental audio improvements and revolutionary display technology hints at Apple’s continued commitment to redefining entire product categories rather than simply iterating on existing designs.

Bottom line: 2025 wasn’t about the products that succeeded commercially—it was about laying the technological and strategic groundwork for the next decade of mobile computing. Every experiment, every engineering challenge overcome, and yes, even every market failure contributed to a comprehensive understanding of what users actually want versus what technology can deliver. In hindsight, we may look back at 2025 as the year Apple learned to balance bold innovation with practical user experience, setting the stage for truly transformative products ahead.