Apple's $1,999 iPhone Duo Is Backordered to January. Some Owners' Screens Already Cracked.

Apple's first foldable phone, the $1,999 iPhone Duo, went on sale on Friday, October 23, and almost nobody who wanted one could get one: online delivery estimates had slipped to around January 25 within 30 minutes of preorders opening a week earlier, and limited walk-in stock sold out at some stores within minutes. The few people who did get one ran into a different problem. By the end of launch day, a handful of owners in Australia, the U.S., Canada and China were posting photos of inner screens broken along the hinge. Apple has not commented on the reports, and nobody yet knows whether they point to a defect or a few bad units. But they arrive in the first days on sale of Apple's first foldable, launched under new CEO John Ternus.

Backordered Before It Went on Sale

Ternus unveiled the Duo at Apple's September 9 event in Cupertino. It folds to roughly the size of a passport, with a 5.4-inch outer screen and a 7.6-inch inner one, runs on the same A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, and starts at $1,999 for 256GB. The top 2TB model is $3,199.

Preorders opened on October 16 in more than 70 countries. CBS News reported that delivery dates moved into next year within minutes and that the phone was backordered until late January by that afternoon. Apple would not say how many orders it took. Analyst Max Weinbach wrote on X that "it's been 3 minutes, and it's sold out at every store around the NYC/CT area," and Dan Ives of Yorkville Ives said in a note that demand was "running well ahead of supply out of the gates." Ives expects about 10 million Duos to sell over the next few quarters and up to 25 million in 2027.

On launch day, Apple told CBS that its stores would have "limited iPhone Duo available for walk-in customers." Queues returned to Apple Fifth Avenue, purchases were capped at two per person, and there were no walk-in sales at all in countries including China, Japan, South Korea and India, where buyers need a pickup reservation.

Gurman Called the Launch a "Major Mistake"

Not everyone reads the shortage as a sign of strength. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman wrote in his Power On newsletter that opening preorders while Apple knew supply was severely constrained was a "major mistake." According to Gurman, Apple had planned to launch in the U.S. and China first and expand later, but opened orders in more than 70 countries at once. His explanation is timing: getting the Duo into Apple's fiscal first quarter, the holiday quarter, rather than waiting until it could meet demand. That is his interpretation, not something Apple has said, and Apple has published no unit or production figures.

The context makes the shortage more pointed. Two weeks ago, Nikkei reported that Apple cut iPhone 18 Pro component orders by at least 15% after a $100 price rise driven by AI-fuelled memory costs. One of Nikkei's sources predicted "a similar fate for the iPhone Duo." So far the opposite has happened: the Pro models are reportedly seeing softer demand than Apple planned for, while the $2,000 foldable can.t be bought.

"Crackgate?" Reports Arrive on Day One

The display reports started within hours. The most detailed case, reported by MacRumors, came from an Australian owner who said the inner screen broke along the hinge after about six hours of ownership and fewer than 20 openings, with no prior marks. The owner said they felt something near the internal hinge, heard a crack, and the screen split. An Apple Store replaced the phone on the spot.

Nearly all the reported faults run along the hinge, usually leaving a line of bright pixels down one side. Digital Trends counted reports from Australia, the U.S., Canada and China, and noted that at least one failure happened while the phone was being opened, not closed. The caveats are serious. There is no reliable count, several photos show demo units in China whose history is unknown, and some reviewers who folded their test units repeatedly reported no problems. Theories about a pinched display or assembly tolerances are, for now, forum speculation.

MacRumors says hinge failures from normal use should fall under the one-year warranty, and launch-day buyers have Apple's standard two-week return window.

The Reviews Were Good. That's Why This Matters.

Before launch, critics were mostly impressed. Engadget gave the Duo 8.8 out of 10 and called it a "first-class foldable," praising its titanium design, multi-angle hinge, matte inner screen and battery life, while knocking its 254-gram weight, its price and the many third-party apps that still letterbox on the larger display. Gizmodo said Apple's wait for a nearly crease-free screen put it at the front of the pack. Bloomberg's review was cooler on software, saying the app ecosystem needs to catch up.

Apple arrived after rivals had spent years refining foldables, and reviewers credited that wait with solving the crease and hinge compromises others had lived with. That is why a few cracked hinges on day one get attention out of proportion to their number. Apple's long list of 2026 headaches already includes a soured AI partnership and memory costs pushing up iPhone prices. If the crack reports stay rare, the Duo will be remembered for the queues. If they grow as January deliveries reach millions of buyers, it will be remembered for the hinge.

Sources

• Apple Newsroom: Apple unveils iPhone Duo
• CBS News: Apple's iPhone Duo is already backordered until 2027 as pre-order sales soar
• MacRumors: Crackgate? iPhone Duo owners report screens breaking along the hinge
• MacRumors: Where to buy iPhone Duo today
• MacRumors: Mark Gurman says Apple made "major mistake" with iPhone Duo pre-orders
• Digital Trends: Some iPhone Duo owners are reporting cracks around the hinge
• Engadget: Apple iPhone Duo review