India, Sept. 4 -- I recently attended two Apple Store launches in quick succession: first at Apple Hebbal in Bengaluru, and today at Apple Koregaon Park in Pune. At both events, I spoke to several customers on day one to find out whether they were most excited about the iPhone 17 series, particularly the iPhone 17 Pro. To my surprise, the Pro was not the centre of attention; instead, the buzz was around the purported iPhone 17 Air, expected to be the thinnest iPhone ever.

In fact, the first customer who entered Apple Hebbal, Apoorv VK Rao, also said the same thing. He said that he was more interested in the iPhone 17 Air. When we asked if he was not too concerned about the rumoured single-camera setup, he said that he is not a photograph...