Apple debuts $1,999 passport-shaped foldable phone, called Duo

Apple has unveiled a $1,999 foldable phone called Duo, introducing the biggest change in years in the company’s flagship product.

The Duo, revealed on Wednesday, is sized and shaped like a passport, with rounded edges. It opens into a horizontal, 7.6-inch-wide (19cm-wide) screen that can also be viewed vertically. There is a smaller single screen on the front when the phone is folded. When open, it is Apple’s thinnest phone, the company said.

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The folding phone event, the first with new CEO John Ternus at the helm, is the most noticeable overhaul of Apple’s flagship product since it removed the physical home button from the iPhone X in 2017. The iPhone brought in $209.6bn, or just more than half of Apple’s sales, in its most recent fiscal year.

Apple positioned the iPhone Duo as a business productivity device, showing how it would manage Zoom calls with multiple participants and a broader view of the Slack messaging app. The Duo’s larger screen will support multiple app windows at once, a move aimed at productivity that Apple has made with some of its iPads.

Ternus criticised existing foldables as awkward and poorly suited for common tasks such as scrolling and video viewing, saying the Duo was designed to deliver an iPad-like experience in a pocket-sized device through a custom hinge, dual displays with a consistent aspect ratio, and a new titanium body.

“It’s entirely new and at the same time remarkably familiar. A similar size to your passport, it feels familiar to hold and comfortable to use with one hand,” Ternus said.

Ternus touted the iPhone platform as a personal AI hub that focused on privacy, saying that others wanted to collect and store personal data. “Honestly, trust only goes so far when your data is no longer yours to control,” he said. “That’s why Apple Intelligence runs on device whenever it can.”

Apple is also focusing on Siri’s new AI capabilities with the new phones, emphasising privacy and security to stand apart from rivals who are further along in incorporating AI.

Meaningful new segment

The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, Ternus said, bring improvements to the battery, camera, and performance. They will start at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively. Customers can preorder the phones starting on September 12, and they will be available on September 18, although the Duo will be available on October 23.

Many of Apple’s biggest rivals, such as Samsung, Motorola and Google, have already come out with foldable smartphones. But Apple is not one to rush on new technologies.

“The foldable launch is straight out of Apple’s playbook: Wait for the product to work out its kinks and for the market to offer glimpses of viability, then enter and shape the category,” said Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee. “The difference is that foldables still represent a minuscule share of the smartphone market. The test of Apple’s ambition will be whether it can expand that niche into a meaningful new segment.”