For a few years new, tech writers (including this one) have been remarking on how Apple, and the tech world in general, is desperate for another 'iPhone moment'. 2007 still feels like the last time a truly game-changing piece of hardware was introduced. Subsequent attempts to position something as a vision of the future—Vision Pro, various AI gadgets— have fallen flat. Meanwhile, over the last twenty years, the iPhone itself has started to feel increasingly stale. But with the unprecedented hype machine that is the iPhone Duo, maybe, just maybe, things feel different this year.
If you haven't already pre-ordered your iPhone Duo, you have a long wait ahead of you. Delivery dates have slipped into 2027, suggesting demand for the thing is through the roof. Which, considering the starting price tag of $2000, is kind of incredible. If so many people are willing to drop that much money on a device that isn't even in stores yet, it must represent something new.
Which, by the way, foldable aren't. Brands like Samsung and Huawei have been making them for years. But Apple is doing its Apple thing and putting out its own take on a maturing product category. While often successful (the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone, nor the Apple Watch the first smartwatch), it hasn't always worked of late. Vision Pro, Apple's attempt at a VR headset, is one of the company's highest-profile flops of recent years.
Everybody blamed the failure of Vision Pro on the price. $3K turned out to be too hard to stomach for most. But the early success of the iPhone Duo is throwing a spanner into the works for that narrative. $2K is arguably a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a phone. But this time, people are going for it. Even Apple is calling the demand "extraordinary".
It's curious that while dramatically new products like Vision Pro have failed to cut through in recent years, so have more minor redesigns of the iPhone itself. The iPhone Air, which shares some DNA with the iPhone Duo thanks to its lightweight titanium frame, failed to capture the public's imagination last year.
But with the iPhone Duo, Apple seems to have finally discovered the sweet spot. Different enough to get people excited, but same enough to make them take a risk with their cash. It's an iPhone. But it's one that unfolds into an iPad. Same but different. Maybe that's what the people wanted all along?
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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles. He has interviewed leaders and designers at brands including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe. Daniel's debut book of short stories and poems was published in 2018, and his comedy newsletter is a Substack Bestseller.