It's no secret that the iPhone Duo has been pretty hard to get hold of, despite the fact prices start at $2,000. The consensus has been that limited supply is the main factor, but Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has revealed a few more factors that could explain why you're having to wait so long for your own iPhone Duo.
One of the biggest factors is that, according to Gurman, Apple actually rushed the iPhone Duo to market. He claims Apple originally intended to wait until November to launch, and even then the foldable would initially only be released in the U.S. and China. Other regions would have to wait until later this year, or more likely into 2027.
In other words, Apple wasn't really prepared to meet the demand, which explains why the company admitted it was "nothing short of extraordinary" to see so many people try to get hold of one.
On top of that, Apple apparently decided that it was going to prioritize brick-and-mortar Apple Stores over the online purchasing experience. This means roughly 80% of Apple's supply of iPhone Duos were set aside for walk-in purchases over that first weekend of sales. This explains why launch-day deliveries and pickups all sold out within minutes of iPhone Duo pre-orders going live.
Apparently stores only had 50 to 250 units each, depending on their size and location. Gurman also notes high storage options and blue units were in particularly short supply — and you'd likely need to camp out to get your hands on one.
Plus, as is the case with any high-profile product launch, scalpers have been using bots to monitor the Apple website and buy up as much stock as they can. That includes reserving any units that do become available for in-store pickup.
Considering scalpers have become a plague over the past several years, Apple should have seen that coming. It's possible that the emphasis on in-store sales was an attempt to try and curb the use of bots and prevent the minority of would-be scalpers from stockpiling Duo units.
Considering scalpers have become a plague over the past several years, Apple should have seen that coming.
But that obviously doesn't work if a) Apple doesn't tell anyone what's going on and b) scalpers are still able to reserve devices for in-store pickup en masse. The lack of transparency is definitely exacerbating the problems of getting hold of an iPhone Duo.
If you're looking to get an iPhone Duo, your only real option is to be patient and wait for Apple, carriers and major retailers to get one to you. It's possible that you may be able to snatch one up for in-store pickup if you're vigilant (and fast), but when you're competing with bots that task becomes significantly harder.
Obviously the last thing you want to do is buy a scalper unit for an inflated price. Not only are you wasting your money, you're encouraging this kind of behavior — and the more scalpers are emboldened, the more they'll do. Stuff costs enough right now without scalpers inserting themselves as middle men.
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