Skeptics who asked who would pay 3.29 million won for a phone have been proven wrong. Apple's first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, sold out within minutes of preorders opening, pushing delivery dates into next year.
The iPhone Duo is the most expensive iPhone ever released. It starts at $1,999 in the U.S. and at 3.29 million won in South Korea for the 256GB model, while the top-end version exceeds 5 million won.
On the first day of preorders on the 16th, delivery dates in the U.S. and some other markets were listed as Jan. 25 of next year, industry sources said on the 18th. In South Korea and China, buyers were told to expect delivery on Jan. 22. That is about three months later than the Oct. 23 launch date Apple announced at its product event last month.
The delays applied equally to both colors — Star White and Night Sky — and to every storage configuration. That effectively rules out getting the device on launch day. Some observers expect a return of long lines outside stores as buyers compete for the limited stock released on the first day of sales. The situation contrasts sharply with the iPhone 18 Pro and other models launched last month, which shipped relatively smoothly.
Would-be buyers vented their frustration on Reddit and other social media, saying initial stock was already gone even though they logged on the moment the preorder page opened. One user who had saved a preferred storage size, color and payment method in advance to speed up checkout said it made no difference, asking sarcastically whether buyers would now need to preorder their preorders. Others were more hopeful, predicting that actual delivery would come earlier because Apple sets conservative shipping estimates as a precaution.
The shortage is attributed to a combination of demand concentrated on the symbolic appeal of Apple's first foldable phone and supply constrained by production yield problems. Nikkei Asia reported last month that Apple's strict quality-control standards had limited early output to several hundred units a day. MacRumors.com, citing China's Jiemian, also reported that the iPhone Duo was facing production disruptions.
Bloomberg Intelligence projected that iPhone Duo sales could exceed the previous estimate of 14 million units and that revenue could top $28 billion (about 37.4 trillion won). Nabila Popal, senior research director for smartphones at IDC, said it would not be surprising if the device became the Hermes Birkin bag of smartphones in China.
Attention is also focused on the device's early performance because it is the first flagship product unveiled under John Ternus, who took over as Apple's chief executive last month.