Apple unveiled its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, marking the company’s entry into a niche market with a price that tops its lineup, as reported by ABC News and David Swan.
The device opens to a 19.3 centimetre display, which Apple says is about 80 percent larger than the screen on the iPhone 18 Pro and folds down to roughly the size of a passport, according to ABC News and Apple’s materials.
Apple said the Duo can run two apps side by side and is the first iPhone to support the Apple Pencil, according to ABC News. Review units were limited at launch, so hands on commentary remained preliminary, David Swan wrote.
The phone replaces Face ID with Touch ID on a side button and omits some features found on Pro models, including the higher end camera and a telephoto lens, David Swan noted. The Duo’s construction features an engineered hinge, a titanium plate under the display and layered adhesives, according to Swan’s description.
Apple priced the Duo at US 1,999 and at $3,499 in Australia, ABC News reported. A top capacity model with 2 terabytes of storage costs $5,899 in Australia, which Swan said amounts to about $2,400 extra for storage.
Market Reaction And Implications
The launch is the first major product presentation under new chief executive John Ternus, who took a ceremonial handoff from Tim Cook on stage, ABC News reported. Analysts and industry sources offered cautious optimism about demand for the Duo.
Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee said Apple has a pattern of waiting until products mature, then shaping the category, ABC News reported. IDC research associate Kiranjeet Kaur forecast Apple could capture about a third of foldable demand after the Duo’s release, ABC News said.
Despite positive forecasts, foldables remain a small slice of the smartphone market, with ABC News reporting global share under 5 percent and IDC putting shipments for the form factor at less than 2 percent. Ben Wood of CCS Insight called demand for Apple’s first foldable likely strong, but questioned how far the category could expand, ABC News reported.
Rising component costs are driving higher prices across Apple’s lineup, ABC News and David Swan reported. Telstra, Optus and Vodafone account for 55 to 60 percent of Australian foldable sales, mostly through financing and trade in plans, Swan wrote, which may ease upfront cost pressures for buyers.
Observers compared the Duo to existing foldables. Swan cited competitors like Motorola’s Razr Fold and Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 as cheaper alternatives with different screen and camera trade offs. He predicted Apple will still sell through available stock given its brand and engineering approach, as reported in his opinion piece.
