Apple said that demand for the new iPhone Duo is “nothing short of extraordinary” as it warned customers they will have to wait until next year to get hold of the new device.
The iPhone Duo – Apple’s first folding device, and the most dramatic redesign of its flagship product since it launched almost 20 years ago – opened for pre-orders on Friday. It sold out almost immediately, with customers who waited even half an hour being told that their products would not be delivered until January.
Over the weekend, Apple said that demand was high but that it was “working hard” to produce as many of them as it could.
“The pre-order demand for iPhone Duo, our first foldable iPhone, has been nothing short of extraordinary,” Apple told the Financial Times in a statement. “We are working hard to get this revolutionary new product into customers’ hands as quickly as possible.”
At the same time, MacRumors reported that Apple’s retail staff have been told to discourage customers from coming to stores to buy the iPhone Duo when it goes on sale on Friday. There will probably be no stock available to customers who have not pre-ordered the device to pick up at an Apple Store, it reported.
Early iPhone launches were often marked by vast queues outside Apple Stores, with customers sometimes sleeping outside overnight to ensure that they get hold of the devices. But, in recent years, Apple has discouraged those kind of queues, instead advising customers to pre-order their devices even if they intend to pick them up from a physical shop.
At the time of publication, Apple’s website advises customers in the UK and US that their devices will not arrive until late January. In the past, however, Apple has tended to under-promise on delivery times, and some of them might arrive earlier.
It is unclear how many of the iPhone Duo devices Apple made in advance of the launch, and how many it might have sold during the frenzy. In advance of the launch, numerous reports had advised that supply could be constrained, in part because of the complex design of the device and the production constraints that result.
Apple has not had the same trouble with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, for instance, which were announced at the same launch event in September. They went on sale shortly after, and are still available to buy immediately.
