| Our friends at Bloomberg Pursuits aren't the only ones keeping their eyes on cultural trends. Nick Turner writes today about what's coming in cellphones: skinnier models. Plus: A guide to what the tech industry's most powerful people want from the Trump administration. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. There was a time when cellphone innovation was measured by one simple benchmark: how small the device was. During the 1990s and early 2000s, phones were shrinking at a fast enough pace that people wondered how it would all end. The trend was parodied in 2001's Zoolander, where model Derek uses a handset the size of a thumb. That same year, Will Ferrell played a stylish store manager on Saturday Night Live using a phone that looked like a dollhouse prop.  Zoolander 2, where Derek's tiny phone reappeared in 2016. Photographer: Alamy But smaller and smaller phones were far from inevitable. When the iPhone made its debut in 2007, consumers realized that a slab of glass was better than a tiny clamshell. By the following decade, Apple Inc.'s generously proportioned Pro and Pro Max versions had become the most prized models in the lineup. So here we are: The current iPhone Pro Max weighs almost 8 ounces (about the size of a black bear cub at birth) and measures 6.4 inches in height. That would have shocked an early-aughts fashionista. The original Motorola Razr, when snapped shut, was less than 4 inches. Consumers have had opportunities to return to smaller phones, but they didn't take the bait. When Apple released a mini version of the iPhone in 2020, it didn't sell well. The company replaced it with a Plus model (which didn't succeed either, perhaps because the Pro versions were a better value for the money). A desire for larger displays has even given rise to a new generation of foldable devices: Google's Pixel 9 Pro Fold opens into an 8-inch screen. Yet in 2025 we may finally be inching back in the Zoolander direction. Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. are both readying ultrathin smartphones for release this year. These phones won't be tiny, but they'll be eerily skinny. As Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has reported, the iPhone will be 2 millimeters thinner than existing models—a decrease of roughly 25%. Apple has paved the way for this transition by developing in-house components, including a modem chip, which can fit in a tighter package. The company is looking to capitalize on the same Air strategy that's boosted its laptop business. The MacBook Air is a hot seller because consumers can get a decent-size screen in a thin package at a midrange price. The new iPhone "Air" (the name isn't known yet) would follow the same playbook. "This can be a very popular choice," says IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo. Consumers value thin devices, he says, so long as they have the same capabilities that they're used to. "At the end of the day, it's more portable—it's lighter," he says. "It doesn't feel like a brick phone."  The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge (right), next to models of the bigger Galaxy 23 and Galaxy 24. Photographer: Bloomberg Unfortunately for Apple, the new iPhone will have to share the spotlight. Samsung just previewed its own ultrathin model, the Galaxy S25 Edge, that it plans to release in the first half of the year. That means the South Korean company would get a head start on Apple, which typically introduces its iPhones in September. For consumers, it's a potentially exciting prospect: an old-fashioned cellphone arms race in the direction of smaller sizes. It's not as important as the development of artificial intelligence features, but it's enough to make us former Razr owners feel a bit nostalgic. Sign up for the Power On newsletter to get the inside scoop from Mark Gurman on all things Apple and consumer tech. | 
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