Robin Williams once joked that cocaine is God’s way of saying you have too much money.
Apple’s new foldable phone, Duo, is the alternative for anyone who prefers technology as their drug of choice.
Tim Cook’s replacement as CEO, Apple hardware veteran John Ternus, helmed the $6.2 trillion tech powerhouse’s annual product launch in California overnight, also releasing the iPhone 18 and alongside upgrades to AirPods – now 5 – and the Apple Watch to Series 12, along with hefty price hikes.
But the widely expected foldable Duo, plugged as “the thinnest iPhone ever”, with a screen 50% larger than iPhone 18 Pro Max, was both the headline and money grabber.
The outer screen, when closed, is 13.7cm – 90% of the iPhone 18 Pro screen size – and when open in landscape, it’s 19cm wide.
Ternus said it’s “a similar size to your passport, it feels familiar to hold and comfortable to use with one hand.”
A 256GB Duo, available from October 23, with pre-orders opening a week earlier, will set you back $3499; the 512GB, $3899. For just $5899, you can get a 2TB version. It comes in black or white. Apple will throw in a free USD-C charging cable with each phone.
Apple’s pitch for those young enough to not remember the Blackberry is that Duo is a multitasking business productivity device, for multi-people Zoom calls and Slack messaging, with more than one app open on screen.
“iPhone Duo is the most transformational change to iPhone since the original. With an entirely new design and intuitive experiences, it shows what’s possible when hardware and software are engineered together and redefines what it means to use a foldable phone,” Ternus said.
“With the largest display ever on iPhone that still fits easily in your pocket, combined with the power of A20 Pro, iPhone Duo helps you stay more immersed and productive wherever you go, whether you’re enjoying content, multitasking across apps, or gaming.”
A niche product
Swinburne University’s Dr Steven Conway says the Duo is “classic Apple”.
“Apple typically wait for an emerging technology to mature, and then try to capitalise with a more refined, polished version,” he says.
“They did this all the way back in the early 80s with their Macintosh computer providing a graphical user interface taken from Xerox PARC; they did it with the iPod as an answer to mp3 players; more recently they tried it with a Virtual Reality headset, the Vision Pro, which mostly bombed.
“Now we have the duo taking on the foldable phone niche introduced by Samsung’s Galaxy Fold.”
But Conway says that it’s a tough market to grow.
“This product is niche with a very particular demographic, who want the portability of a phone but the use case of an iPad Pro,” he says.
“I think that’s one of the key factors here: giving John Ternus the opportunity to land with a splash, without doing anything to rock the boat too much.
“If it fails, it was a niche product anyway and worth a try; if it succeeds, what a genius.”
Meanwhile, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, has a 48MP Fusion Main camera, with variable aperture, and new Pro controls in the Camera app, and a jump in battery life and performance. It’s available from next Friday, September 18. Please bring at least $2099 for a 256GB version of the 18 Pro, with its 16cm screen, $2299 for the Pro Max with its 17.5cm screen, or $4.499 if you want to the 2TB version.
The Duo and 18 both use the new A20 Pro chip, which bolsters the AI in the phones.
Older models, the 17 and its relatives, have increased in price by between $100 and $150.
For Apple Watch fans, it’s all about the heart, with the Series 12, and Ultra 4 both scoring improved health sensors the S11 chip, and higher-frequency heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements, as well as Siri AI.
AirPods 5 have up to 1.5x more active noise cancellation and for $249, you can get a wireless charging version. There’s also on-stem volume control.
iPhone Duo is availability from Friday, October 23
