Apple's first folding iPhone launches October 23 with a big retail push and thin inventory.
Apple is dedicating a section of its Fifth Avenue flagship to the iPhone Duo and adding new fixtures that show how the phone folds and unfolds, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Most other stores get a smaller allotment: about 20 demo units each. Three especially busy locations, Chicago's Michigan Avenue, LA's The Grove, and Manhattan's Upper West Side, will have a larger batch of 30 to 40 units. New MagSafe stands will display an open Duo next to two regular iPhones, and in-store "Presto" machines will configure devices without unboxing them, adding each buyer's name to the first-startup greeting in English or Spanish. Pre-orders open October 16, sales start October 23, and the 256GB model starts at $1,999.
What's notable is how close this timeline came to slipping. Two months ago, Gurman reported, Apple feared production constraints might push sales into November. The company has since built up just enough inventory to launch on schedule, though supply remains tight everywhere. The elaborate showcase tables are partly compensating for that: most walk-in customers will see the phone up close well before they can actually buy one.
It's the same constrained-launch pattern Apple used for the first Apple Watch and recent Vision Pro runs, except this time the device costs $1,999, not exactly an impulse buy that needs artificial scarcity to feel exclusive.