The Apple iPhone Duo launch marks the company’s first entry into the foldable smartphone market, with a starting price of $2,000 (£1,475) and a top-storage model reaching $3,200 (£2,360), placing it among the most expensive handsets available. Apple chief executive John Ternus unveiled the device, describing it as ‘inspired by the iPad’ and calling its folding mechanics ‘fluid and completely intuitive’.
The Duo follows a book-style format: when unfolded, it resembles a small iPad; when folded in half, it takes on the look of a wider iPhone. According to Wikipedia, the handset features a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display when fully open, giving users a substantially larger canvas than a conventional smartphone.
Apple iPhone Duo launch: key dates and battery figures
The phone will be available for pre-order on 16 October and in stores on 23 October, ABC News reports. Battery life, always a concern with devices running two screens, comes in at an estimated 31 hours of video playback on the inner display, 44 hours on the outer display, and 24 hours when both screens are used equally, according to NBC News. Those figures put the outer-display battery performance well ahead of most standard iPhones, though users splitting time across both screens will see that advantage narrow.
Ternus, who took on the chief executive role after Tim Cook stepped down earlier this year, was directly involved in developing the Duo during many years as a top executive in Apple’s hardware division. The foldable has been a work-in-progress inside Apple for several years, and its unveiling comes in Ternus’s second week in the top job.
Sceptics question whether the Duo can drive real growth
Not everyone is convinced the device represents a turning point. Dipanjan Chatterjee, an analyst at Forrester, warned that ‘the foldable risks becoming a premium-priced ornament in the portfolio, imparting badge value but not meaningful growth.’ Chatterjee drew a comparison with Apple’s Vision Pro headset, priced at $3,699, which the company has not seen hit with buyers. Equally, he noted, the Duo could follow the path of the Apple Watch, which while not as popular as the iPhone is bought by millions of people each year.
Ben Wood, chief analyst at technology research firm FDM, offered a more measured take on the timing of Ternus’s appointment. Wood said it was likely that his promotion was timed specifically ‘to coincide with what will be arguably one of the biggest iPhone launches for many years’, adding: ‘Nothing happens by accident at Apple.’
On the wider market, Wood noted that foldable smartphones from the likes of Samsung and Huawei currently make up only 2% of total smartphone sales. Even with Apple’s version expected to drive interest and demand, FDM data suggests sales of foldables are only expected to reach 4% of the total market in the next decade.
Ternus used the launch event to address the design criticism often levelled at rival foldables, saying competing devices ‘feel like two phones stuck together, making a larger screen feel much smaller.’ The Duo, he said, is the ‘result of a series of remarkable innovations that we think will redefine the experience of using a foldable phone.’
The iPhone has historically accounted for more than half of Apple’s sales each year, and the company has said in recent quarters that demand for the device is stronger than ever, with the most recent version becoming its most successful product launch. Whether the Apple iPhone Duo launch can extend that record, or whether it will occupy a niche corner of the portfolio, will become clearer once pre-orders open on 16 October.
