Apple Inc. has already shown there's a strong appetite for its $2,000-and-up foldable iPhone Duo. Now it needs to meet that demand.
The new device goes on sale Friday, with the first shipments reaching Apple retail stores around the world. It also will begin arriving at the homes of customers who ordered quickly enough to secure day-one deliveries.
The launch is bringing back a once-familiar sight: lines outside Apple stores. Such crowds have largely disappeared in recent years after Apple, retailers like Best Buy Co. and wireless carriers began maintaining enough inventory to fulfill most orders through home delivery or appointment-based store pickups.
This time is different. Supplies for preorders were so limited that many customers hoping to get the Duo on launch day have little choice but to line up and see whether their local store has any inventory available. Apple is allocating a small portion of its stock for those people.
At the company's flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City, where top Apple executives typically open the doors to buyers, there was a line of customers without preorders that reached more than a few dozen people by the early evening on Thursday. There were similar lines in Asia and Australia.
As one of the most expensive mainstream smartphones ever sold, the Duo had raised questions about just how much demand there would be. But early adopters, resellers and everyday Apple fans have demonstrated that the interest is there.
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 two-decade 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 $3,199 for models with 2 terabytes of storage.
Though the Duo's cost sets a record for a mass-market smartphone, Apple's competitors such as Samsung Electronics Co. have been raising prices as well. Shortages of memory chips and other components have made consumer electronics more expensive across the board.
Consumers placing new orders for the Duo on Apple's website are now being offered delivery at the end of January, though some early buyers have seen their January 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.
The phones 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 the period 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.