Barron’s notes that Apple’s first foldable iPhone ($1,999 starting price) saw rapid early demand after preorders opened on October 16, 2026, with shipping estimates quickly slipping into early 2027 amid constrained supply. The piece frames the sellout as a bullish signal for Apple shares, underscoring consumer enthusiasm for the new form factor under CEO John Ternus.
Angela Palumbo for Barron’s:
Customers were able to preorder the iPhone Duo on Friday, although those eager to get their hands on the Duo won’t get delivery until the end of January. That time frame, spelled out on Apple’s website, signals that demand for the new smartphone is strong.
The Duo was announced last month alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. Preorders of those phones started on Sept. 12, and they officially became available on Sept. 18. Some analysts have reported that wait times — how long a customer has to wait for a product — for the iPhone 18 Pro lineup have been slowing. That means that customers are getting the new iPhones quicker than some shareholders may like to see, since higher demand tends to lead to longer wait times.
There has been hope that demand for the iPhone 18 Pro wasn’t booming because consumers were just waiting to purchase the Duo. That would be a positive for Apple, as the iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 compared with the Pro at $1,199. Friday’s initial preorder response seems to indicate that may have been the case.
MacDailyNews Take: iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max preorder wait times vs. prior years are meaningless without knowing how many units Apple had of each in their initial supplies. Nobody outside of Apple knows those data points. The same goes for iPhone Duo. Did Apple have 1 million units, 5 million units, or 10 million units or more ready to go when preorders opened today? That’s the question. We won’t know even a bit of the answer until Apple’s next earnings conference call.
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If there was any slack in iPhone 18 Pro sales – this is where it was accounted for. I almost ordered one but since I’ve already purchased three iPhones for family members already this year, I’m going to wait a bit until production catches up before I upgrade my iPhone 12 Pro to the Duo.