The key facts

  • The $1,999 iPhone Duo sold out soon after its launch in late October
  • Apple doesn't know when supply and demand will balance — words of new chief operating officer Sabih Khan
  • The screens of a 'small number' of phones cracked along the fold — the company promised to replace such devices

Sell-out and supply uncertainty

Apple's new chief John Ternus, who replaced Tim Cook as CEO in September, said on Monday that the company is working to make the foldable iPhone Duo available to more buyers. The $1,999 phone (£1,999 in the UK) sold out almost immediately after its launch in late October. The company does not know when new batches will arrive: chief operating officer Sabih Khan told financial analysts on a call that 'it is currently very hard to predict when supply and demand will balance out.' BBC News reports this.

Screen problem

On the call with analysts, Apple executives did not mention problems with the device, but a week earlier the company had reported that the screens of a 'small number' of new phones had cracked along the inner fold, and promised to replace all affected devices. Meanwhile, demand for the Duo remains high.

Record results against a backdrop of component shortages

Despite the problems with the new product, Apple reported a record year for iPhone sales. In the three months to 26 September — a quarter that did not include Duo sales — iPhone revenue rose 17% to $57 billion, Mac sales grew 27% to $10.7 billion, and total annual revenue rose 15% to $479 billion. At the same time, iPad sales fell 10%, and wearables, including the Watch and headphones, fell 7%.

Chip shortage and rising prices

Khan noted that most Apple devices still face component shortages, including microprocessors made on 'advanced nodes', which are produced mainly by Taiwan's TSMC. The constraints, he said, will persist into next year, affecting the iPad and Mac most of all, and the situation is worsened, according to the company, by 'unexpected demand.' Ternus added that Apple is facing an 'unprecedented' rise in memory prices: demand for data centers has surged due to the popularity of AI platforms, including products from OpenAI and Anthropic. Earlier this year, Cook described the sharp rise in data center spending as a 'thousand-year flood.' According to the BBC, this led the company to raise prices on nearly all of its hardware products by roughly 20%.

New Apple CEO John Ternus holds the new foldable iPhone Duo during Apple's event at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California, 9 September, 2026.Image source, Reuters