Apple delays iPhone Duo shipments to January as initial preorders vanish within minutes

Apple opened preorders on Friday for the iPhone Duo, its first foldable smartphone, but shipping estimates quickly slipped into next year. Starting at $1,999, the device is scheduled for official release on Oct. 23. However, minutes after sales began at 5 a.m. PT, direct orders across all color and storage options backed up to late January, with dates extending as far out as Jan. 29. [1][2]

The phone features a 5.4-inch outer cover screen and unfolds into a 7.6-inch interior display that supports Apple Pencil input and iPad-style drag-and-drop multitasking. It also carries dual 48-megapixel main and ultrawide cameras. While Apple store deliveries face months-long delays, inventory remains variable across carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, and physical retail stores will have units on launch day. [1]

The rapid sellout stems from a mix of intense buyer interest and tight production constraints. Nikkei Asia previously reported that Apple was producing only a few hundred units a day ahead of the launch. The resulting scarcity has already sent scalpers to secondary markets like eBay, where listings for preorder slots have reached as high as $5,200 as Apple enters a folding market populated by Samsung's Galaxy Fold 8 and Google's Pixel 11 Pro Fold. [1][2]