NEW DELHI: Apple's long-awaited entry into the foldable smartphone market has begun with a frenzy in India, where the first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Duo, sold out within an hour of pre-orders opening on Friday evening.
Pre-orders in India opened at 5:30 PM IST on October 16, and the initial stock was exhausted within the hour. Fresh orders placed after the sellout now show delivery estimates of January 23 to 25, 2027, a wait of roughly three months. The official sale date is October 23. In the United States, the response was even swifter, with the device selling out in about 15 minutes after pre-orders began at 8 AM Eastern Time.
The iPhone Duo is Apple's most expensive iPhone ever. In India, the base 256GB variant is priced at Rs 2,99,900, while the 512GB model costs Rs 3,24,900, the 1TB version Rs 3,74,900, and the top-end 2TB variant an eye-watering Rs 4,49,900. In the US, the base model starts at $1,999.
For a market where premium smartphones above Rs 1 lakh are already a niche, a Rs 3 lakh starting price is a bold statement. Yet the speed of the sellout suggests that Apple has no shortage of takers among India's growing base of affluent early adopters, a segment that has expanded rapidly as the company's India business has grown.
The device itself is a showcase of Apple's engineering. It features a 5.4-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch inner foldable display, both Super Retina XDR panels with ProMotion and peak brightness of up to 3,000 nits. It is powered by the A20 Pro chip, measures just 5.2mm when unfolded and 11.3mm when folded, weighs 254 grams, carries an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, and comes in two colours: Star White and Night Sky.
Apple has not disclosed pre-order numbers or the size of its initial inventory, and analysts caution that a quick sellout, while impressive, does not by itself establish the total sales volume. One report noted that the stretched delivery timelines reflect demand running ahead of the first production batch, a common pattern for halo launches.
The iPhone Duo arrives years after Samsung, Google and Chinese manufacturers established the foldable category. Apple, characteristically, has waited until it believed it could deliver a foldable that meets its standards for durability, the crease, and the software experience. The company's pitch is that the Duo is not just another foldable, but the first one that feels like a finished product rather than an experiment.
In India, the launch carries particular significance. Apple has been steadily building its presence in the country, from expanding manufacturing to opening its first retail stores, and India is now one of the company's fastest-growing markets. The iPhone Duo's strong early response adds momentum to Apple's premium push at a time when the Indian smartphone market is seeing a clear shift toward higher-priced devices.
The pricing, however, will test the limits of that premiumisation. At Rs 2,99,900, the base iPhone Duo costs more than many high-end laptops and is roughly three times the price of Apple's own standard iPhone models. For most buyers, it will remain an aspirational product, but in the luxury segment, aspiration is precisely the point.
Industry watchers will be watching two things in the coming months: whether Apple can ramp up supply to meet the evident demand, and whether the Duo can expand the foldable market beyond the early adopters who rushed the pre-orders. Foldables currently account for a small fraction of global smartphone sales, and Apple's entry is widely expected to be the catalyst that takes the category mainstream.
There are also questions about after-sales support for such an expensive and mechanically complex device in India. Foldable displays are costlier to repair than conventional screens, and buyers spending Rs 3 lakh and above will expect service to match. Apple has been expanding its service network in the country, and the Duo will be a test of that infrastructure.
For now, though, the story is simple: Apple built a foldable, priced it at a level few dared to imagine, and watched it vanish from the shelves in an hour. The three-month delivery queue is both a badge of honour and a challenge. Whether the iPhone Duo becomes a defining product of the foldable era or remains a niche luxury will depend on what happens after the initial frenzy fades, but Apple could hardly have asked for a louder opening act.
The launch also lands at a moment when India's appetite for premium technology is at an all-time high. From luxury cars to high-end wearables, affluent Indian consumers have shown a growing willingness to pay top dollar for flagship products, and global brands have taken notice, timing launches and expanding retail footprints accordingly. The iPhone Duo's reception will be read across the industry as the latest signal of just how deep that premium demand runs.
Rivals will be watching closely too. Samsung has dominated the foldable segment for years, and Google's Pixel foldables have carved out their own following, but neither commands Apple's brand pull in the ultra-premium tier. If the Duo sustains its momentum beyond the launch window, competitors may be forced to rethink both pricing and feature roadmaps for the next generation of foldables aimed at Indian buyers.
There is also the question of what the Duo means for Apple's own line-up. A successful foldable could eventually reshape the iPhone range itself, blurring the line between phone and tablet and giving Apple a new canvas for its services, from productivity apps to gaming. For now, the company will be content with the headline numbers: an hour to sell out, a three-month queue, and the most expensive iPhone it has ever made finding buyers faster than it can build them.
Early hands-on impressions from the pre-order window describe a device that unfolds with a near-invisible crease and a hinge mechanism that feels distinctly Apple in its precision. Whether that craftsmanship justifies the price for everyday users remains an open question, but for the buyers already in the queue, the answer was clearly yes within the first hour.
(Reporting based on The Economic Times and Business Standard.)