Unless you are willing to queue at dawn or run a bot, you will probably not own an iPhone Duo this calendar year. Apple’s first foldable costs $1,999 and up, and the stock that reaches shops is thin. Reselling is already a business.
Under the hood
Start with the hardware, because it is the best part. One reviewer who has spent time with it notes that Apple has engineered its way around at least some of the problems that have dogged other foldables. The crease between the two screens is so close to invisible that he rarely thought about it with the phone open. Rivals on Android, in his experience, show a conspicuous seam and a bubbly look where the display seems to be peeling away from the layer below.
The verdict is mixed all the same. He calls it technically impressive but not always enjoyable, with some odd rough edges and a price most people will balk at. Some design choices feel like steps back from the iPhone 17 and iPhone 18 Pro. As a small iPad it is surprisingly good. As an iPhone, he says, he cannot name a single way he prefers it to an ordinary one. It also has a learning curve, the first on an iPhone since 2018’s iPhone X changed how people use the software.
How Apple rationed it
The Duo went into production during a memory shortage, one factor that pushed it to that $1,999 price floor. Bloomberg reported that Apple then chose a rollout that kept supply far below demand. The phones trickled into stores worldwide in October rather than waiting for November, with most of the effort aimed at the United States and China.
On release weekend, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says, Apple put 80% of its available Duos on shelves and held back 20% for shipments and in-store pickup. Even then each store had “50 to 250 units”. Gurman’s sources describe real people lining up outside Apple Stores in the early morning, Black Friday style. Robots, presumably, cannot do that yet.
Enter the bots
The pickup allocation is where the automation comes in. Gurman wrote that scalpers and other buyers are using AI-powered bots to watch Apple’s website and grab newly available inventory for in-store pickup within seconds.
Not everyone is clever about it. Before launch, a Redditor asked the iPhoneDuo subreddit whether Meta’s Muse would do for the job and was pelted with scorn by commenters, later editing the post to say they would steer clear. Gurman’s reporting suggests that others found a way regardless.
Resellers, meanwhile, can hardly believe their luck. One nervous poster says they received double the retail price for a Duo on eBay and asks whether anything about it seems suspicious. The replies are reassuring, if you happen to be a scalper.
Sources
- Apple
- Apple | AAPL Stock Price, Company Overview & News
- Apple iPhone Duo review: Two screens, two experiences, two thousand dollars
- I Spent 30 Minutes With Apple’s CEO. Now I Know Why John Ternus Got the Job
- Youâll Never Guess How Scalpers Are Reportedly Snagging Rare iPhone Duos
- The Apple iPhone 17 is free this weekend — how to claim
Photo: Ahmad Ali Karim (CC0)
