Apple unveils iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone, from £1,999

Apple yesterday unveiled the iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone, priced from £1,999 to £3,199 depending on storage, with pre-orders opening on 16 October.

Designed as a smartphone and tablet in one, it is Apple’s most expensive iPhone to date. Apple describes it as its most “transformational” iPhone since the first model nearly 20 years ago.

The passport-sized device has a 5.4in display when folded. Opened, it has a 7.6in screen and is the thinnest iPhone yet.

John Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook as chief executive on 1 September, said Apple was “redefining” the experience of a foldable phone. Samsung pioneered the category seven years ago and unveiled a similar passport-sized foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold8, in August.

“Others have created foldables that just feel like two phones awkwardly stuck together,” Ternus said.

“Scrolling through vertical content feels compromised, and movies are boxed in by oversized black bars, making a larger screen feel much smaller,” he said. “We started with the experience that we wanted for ourselves, a larger display that feels as natural and intuitive as iPad.”

Both displays share the same aspect ratio, designed to give a smooth transition between the open and closed positions. The Duo is also compatible with the Apple Pencil.

Apple has tried to address one of the main consumer concerns about foldables, the crease in the centre of the device. The company said a “multi-layer lamination design keeps the display flat and provides durability”, along with a titanium plate giving a “viewing quality that feels premium and flat”.

The design means the Duo’s camera does not match the quality of those in the new iPhone 18 range. The Duo also uses Touch ID rather than Face ID for security.

IDC, a market intelligence firm, forecasts that Apple will sell 10 million Duos in the first 12 months, which would generate $27bn in revenue from a single product.

The Duo also lets Apple compete with Huawei, which dominates the foldable category in China. In an analysis published on 26 August, IDC said Apple was positioned to challenge Huawei and Samsung in markets where they have long dominated.

Ben Wood, chief analyst at FDM, a market research company, said: “I have little doubt that Apple will see plenty of demand for this new device. However, foldables are destined to remain a niche product for the foreseeable future. Despite huge advances in design and performance, they account for less than 5 per cent of the overall market.”

He added: “However, the arrival of the iPhone Duo could act as a rising tide for all manufacturers, providing a boost to the foldable smartphone segment.”

Francisco Jeronimo, vice-president of client devices at IDC, said: “At $1,999 it is Apple’s most expensive iPhone ever, but it landed around $500 cheaper than most people were bracing for. Other brands spent years explaining what a foldable even is. Apple gets to skip that. Its opportunity is to teach hundreds of millions of iPhone users why they finally need one.”

Paolo Pescatore, of PP Foresight, another research firm, said higher pricing across the premium iPhone 18 line-up “could also sway some customers toward the foldable, narrowing the perceived jump to a completely new form factor”.

“Apple will now flex its considerable marketing muscle to kick-start demand and give the foldable category a major boost,” Pescatore said. “I fully expect it to be an instant hit.”

iPhone 18 prices and Apple Watch

Apple also unveiled the iPhone 18 range, with camera improvements and price rises of $100 because of the worldwide shortage of computer memory. In June, Cook said price increases were unavoidable as memory chip costs rose.

A new feature called Siri Recap for the Apple Watch 12 and Ultra will record and transcribe ambient conversation, which Wood predicts could raise privacy concerns.

“People are likely to be nervous about the Apple Watch constantly capturing audio, and Apple will need to work hard to stress the privacy features and ensure that no audio is recorded or stored unless the user instructs it to save,” he said.

Deliveries of the iPhone Duo begin on 23 October.

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