Apple’s iPhone Duo hits stores in face of short supply and high demand

Apple Inc. quickly sold out of its limited in-store inventory for the new iPhone Duo, underscoring the strong demand for a foldable device that starts at nearly US$2,000.

The phone went on sale Friday, bringing back the once-familiar sight of people lining up overnight to get their hands on it first. Marking the company’s most radical reinvention in the iPhone’s nearly two-decade history, the Duo is a major bet that Apple can establish itself in a category that’s remained a niche so far.

Apple’s latest gadget packed stores from New York to Beijing and Singapore. The early turnout featured customers collecting their preorders, some trying their luck to secure limited inventory for walk-in purchases, and resellers hoping to flip the devices for a higher price.

In Singapore, a few hundred people stood in line early Friday, including a family of seven from Myanmar who’d camped out overnight.

“This is the first true innovation Apple have had in years,” said Peter Ingram, a chief technology officer visiting from London, who plans to buy it upon his return to the United Kingdom. “It is expensive. But I tried it out, played with it in the store. It’s incredible how it’s got no crease.”

In the United States, Apple stores received roughly 50 to 200-plus Duo units per location, and they went fast. A store in Los Angeles had no units left for people who arrived after around 6:30 a.m. The 256-gigabyte star white model, priced at US$1,999, was popular with shoppers.

Large crowds on launch day have mostly dissipated in recent years after Apple, retailers and wireless carriers began maintaining enough inventory to fulfill most orders through home delivery or appointment-based store pickups. But the company’s first foldable device arrived in much more limited supply.

Consumers placing new orders for the Duo on Apple’s website are now being offered delivery at the end of January, though some have seen their shipping estimates move up to as soon as November or December. The delays mark some of the lengthiest for a new Apple product in the company’s modern era.

Shoppers at the Domain Northside Apple Store in Austin were greeted by new chief executive John Ternus, CBS reported. At the Fifth Avenue location in New York, the line was already stretching multiple blocks around 5 a.m., three hours before doors opened to iPhone Duo customers. The launch there was marked by Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing, and Vanessa Trigub, vice president of retail stores.

At the Apple Store in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, about 40 miles outside Philadelphia, the 256- and 512-gigabyte configurations sold out within the first half hour, leaving the pricier one and two terabyte models.

Victor Osorio, a shopper at that location, said even though foldables aren’t new, “Apple always does something different and adds extra spice to it. I’m not nervous about the form factor but I am about the hinge. I don’t want it to get in the way but it looks OK so far.” Osorio arrived early with his partner, Victoria, who also purchased the Duo and said she was intrigued by the device’s multitasking capabilities.

At the same location, Naveed Abubacker said he trades in his iPhone every year. “Foldable technology has been around for a while and Apple is late to the gate but I’m ready for it,” he said. “If it doesn’t work out for me, I’ll return it.”

In China, Shanghai and Beijing saw a moderate turnout, with most Duo buyers already loyal Apple customers who said they were excited to try out the new design. Many had to register in advance to secure their unit.

“It will take some getting used to,” said Andy Shen at Apple’s Sanlitun store in Beijing. “I chose the Duo mainly because it opens up to a bigger screen to enable better experience with videos, though its other functions are not measuring up to earlier generations, like the camera.”

As one of the most expensive mainstream smartphones ever sold, the Duo had raised questions about just how much demand there would be. Most of the shoppers in Beijing and Singapore looked past the high price and focused on the promise of a truly new Apple product after many years of iterative updates.

The iPhone lineup is Apple’s largest moneymaker, generating roughly half of the company’s revenue. And the Duo is the biggest single design change in the device’s nearly history. Though the company wasn’t first to market with a foldable phone, it looks to gain an edge with a more polished product built for Apple fans.

Rather than a repeat of the lackluster debut of the Vision Pro headset nearly three years ago, the Duo’s launch is shaping up to be a throwback to the iPhone introductions of old — when demand far outstripped supply. That’s the case even with device prices reaching as high as US$3,199 for models with two terabytes of storage.

Though the Duo’s cost sets a record for a mass-market smartphone, Apple’s competitors such as Samsung Electronics Co., Xiaomi Corp. and Oppo have been raising prices as well. Shortages of memory chips and other components have made consumer electronics more expensive across the board.

The new phones from Apple are difficult to produce because of their advanced hinge and new display technology. They’re also only built in a limited number of facilities in China. Apple expanded production in recent years for its traditional iPhones, including to India, which has helped with supply.

Apple reports its quarterly earnings results on Nov. 2, but those won’t include sales of the Duo because the period concluded around the end of September. It will reflect early sales of iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models, which debuted on Sept. 18.

Other new versions, such as the entry-level iPhone or the updated Air, won’t go on sale until next year, Bloomberg News has reported. That marks a change in the company’s usual release schedule, a move meant to help spread out revenue across the year.

—Mark Gurman, Gabrielle Ng, Lyu Dong and Samantha Kelly

—With assistance from Chris Welch.