By Hamza Faisal
Apple is officially a foldable-phone company. The iPhone Duo, the company's first folding smartphone, went on sale Friday, October 23 — and judging by the lines outside Apple Stores and the empty shelves in India, it is the most chaotic iPhone launch in years.
The rollout has already begun on the other side of the date line. With October 23 arriving first in Australia and New Zealand, customers who pre-ordered the Duo are receiving their devices and posting first impressions to forums and social media — photos and early takes from real buyers, not reviewers, are flooding the MacRumors forums, Instagram and Reddit.
The Duo is on sale in more than 70 countries and regions from day one, with 28 additional markets following on October 30. But getting your hands on one is far from simple.
India sells out before the doors open
India is the clearest example of just how tight supply is. Apple's first-week stock of the iPhone Duo in India is entirely sold out, according to sources quoted by PTI — meaning walk-in shoppers at the BKC store in Mumbai and the Saket store in New Delhi will find nothing to buy on launch day.
Apple has also imposed launch-day purchase curbs in the country. In-store availability is restricted to customers who already placed online pre-orders, and the company's Indian online store caps purchases at two iPhones per customer, per order. Apple has not publicly explained the cap.
The price is not helping. The Duo starts at ₹2,99,900 in India, with the range running to roughly ₹4.5 lakh — in the same territory as some of Maruti Suzuki's best-selling hatchbacks. IDC India and SEA research manager Upasana Joshi attributed the restrictions primarily to supply constraints, including a shortage of memory components affecting Apple's smartphone lineup. "A first-generation foldable adds further complexity, so initial volumes will be limited," she said, adding that the caps could discourage bulk purchases for resale.
Counterpoint Research director Tarun Pathak believes initial adoption will be driven by the form factor, the bigger screen and a polished interface, and estimates the Duo could capture around 24 percent of India's foldable segment, where it competes with Samsung's Z Fold 8 series.
Lines around the block, a January wait for the rest
Elsewhere, the launch looks like a throwback to the iPhone's blockbuster years. A line outside Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship in New York reportedly started about 39 hours before launch, with customers queuing roughly 48 hours early at Galaxy Macau and one Sydney buyer arriving Monday evening. Apple decorated the Fifth Avenue glass cube with large covered installations — likely oversized models of the device, per 9to5Mac.
Pre-orders opened October 16 and slipped into January 2027 within minutes — and they have stayed there since. Walk-in units are available only in select markets: the US, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, select Italian stores, Mexico, Macao (launch day only), Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the UK. In France, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the UAE, there are no walk-in sales — pickup requires a reservation, with Japan and South Korea reservation-only from the start. Apple advises customers to check back on October 24 for pickup reservations.
What $1,999 buys
The iPhone Duo is a book-style foldable: closed, it works as a 5.4-inch iPhone; opened, it becomes a 7.6-inch tablet. Inside is the A20 Pro chip running iOS 27, in star white or night sky. Apple claims the inner panel is 50 percent larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max display, and that the closed phone keeps 90 percent of the iPhone 18 Pro's screen area thanks to a wider outer display.
The hardware pitches durability as well: an IP68 dust-and-water rating and a stiffer polymer cover layer over the folding display, plus a dual-battery design rated for up to 44 hours of video on the outer display. Whether those claims hold up will be decided by teardown labs and long-term use — iFixit's dust-exposure hinge tests on Samsung's latest foldable earned only a provisional 4 out of 10 repairability score, a reminder that first-generation foldables deserve scrutiny at this price.
For Apple, though, the Duo is more about positioning than volume. IDC's Joshi put it bluntly: the Duo matters more for Apple's premium positioning than for its India volumes. The question now is whether the supply chain can catch up with the demand — or whether the $1,999 foldable stays a January unicorn well into the new year.
