All we really know is that if you didn’t already place your pre-order, you’re going to wait a while.
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Apple made the iPhone Duo available for pre-order on Friday, and it appears that the company’s first foldable is a big hit. If you didn’t place your pre-order immediately, you’ll probably be waiting until next year to get your hands on one. At least, that’s what the delivery dates say on Apple’s website.
On the one hand, it’s kind of impressive. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999, making it the most expensive starting price for an iPhone that Apple has ever sold. And within minutes of preorders opening Friday morning, it appeared that Apple was selling far more than it expected.
By 8:30 a.m. ET, every configuration was showing a delivery date more than three months away. It was remarkable, when you consider that Apple has spent decades perfecting its ability to design, manufacture, and distribute hundreds of millions of iPhones every year.
Apple, for its part, seems delighted. In a statement to CNBC, the company described demand for its first foldable iPhone as “nothing short of extraordinary.” Apple added that it’s working to get the new device into customers’ hands as quickly as possible.
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Selling out its new premium iPhone sounds like great news, at least for Apple. Every smartphone company is looking for ways to convince customers to upgrade their device, and a foldable iPhone is about as good a reason as it gets. Even considering that it costs twice as much as most of its other models, apparently customers can’t get enough of it.
There’s just one problem: Extraordinary compared with what?
If you think about it, the fact that iPhone Duo deliveries slipped into January almost immediately really tells us only one thing: that Apple sold more devices than it could ship with its current projected inventory. We don’t know how many devices people ordered, or whether it’s more than what Apple thought it would sell initially.