iPhone Duo goes on sale, and India's first week of stock is already booked

Picture a phone that opens like a small book. Shut, it fits in a pocket. Open, it turns into a mini tablet. That phone, Apple's first folding iPhone, called the iPhone Duo, went on sale on Friday, 23 October 2026. In India, the whole first week of stock was booked before day one even started, says a news agency report.

That is what news agency PTI reported, citing people who track Apple's stock, in a story carried by The Economic Times. Apple did not immediately answer an emailed question about it. So this is a report from unnamed people, not an Apple statement.

What exactly sold out?

Before a phone reaches shops, buyers can pre-book it. Pre-booking is like reserving a samosa at the canteen before the lunch bell: you say "keep one for me" and pick it up later. In India, pre-orders for the iPhone Duo opened on 16 October.

According to the PTI report, the first week's stock is fully booked. Apple's own stores at BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex) in Mumbai and Saket in New Delhi got the most bookings, and the two were very close. The report says this means people cannot walk into an Apple Store and buy one on the spot.

The news agency Reuters gave a similar picture. Apple told Reuters that in China, France, Hong Kong, India and Japan, units would go only to customers who had ordered online.

Four steps: Apple shows the iPhone Duo on 9 September, pre-orders open in India on 16 October, the first week's India stock gets booked, sale begins on 23 October — How the iPhone Duo went from a stage show to a shop shelf.

So what is a folding phone?

A normal phone has one flat screen. A foldable has a screen that bends in the middle, held by a hinge, like the spine of a notebook.

Apple first showed the phone on 9 September 2026. It has two screens. When it is closed, the outer screen is 5.4 inches. When it is open, the inner screen is 7.6 inches, which Apple says is 50% larger than the screen on the iPhone 18 Pro Max. Apple also calls it the thinnest iPhone ever when it is open. To unlock it, users touch a sensor built into the side button.

Before and after panels: folded shut, a 5.4-inch screen; opened up, a 7.6-inch screen, 50% bigger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max — Closed, it is a phone. Open, it is closer to a small tablet.

The phone was introduced by John Ternus, the former hardware chief who became Apple's CEO in September.

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How much does it cost in India?

This is where many people gasp. On Apple's India online store, the iPhone Duo comes in four storage sizes:

256GB: Rs 2,99,900
512GB: Rs 3,24,900
1TB: Rs 3,74,900
2TB: Rs 4,49,900

Storage is how much space the phone has for photos, videos and apps. More space costs more. The jump from the smallest to the biggest model is Rs 1,50,000 on its own.

The Economic Times noted that this price range matches some of the top-selling Maruti Suzuki hatchback cars in India. To put it in pocket money terms: if you saved Rs 500 every week, the cheapest model would take about 600 weeks, which is more than 11 years.

A big number counting up to Rs 4,49,900, the price of the 2TB iPhone Duo, with four bars for the 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB models — Four storage sizes, four price steps, topping out near Rs 4.5 lakh.

Why so high? Tarun Pathak of Counterpoint Research, a firm that studies phone sales, told India Today that the price is high because of import duty and forex. Import duty is a tax on goods brought in from another country. Forex means the exchange rate between the rupee and the dollar.

Is it made in India?

No, not this one. Bloomberg reported, in a story carried by Business Standard, that the Duo is hard to make because of its hinge and new screen, and that it is built in only a limited number of factories in China. The same report says Apple has grown production of its regular iPhones in India in recent years.

Why are some shops charging extra?

When something is scarce, sellers can push the price up. Think of tickets for a big cricket final being resold at double the price.

India Today said it spoke to more than 17 retailers. Several shop owners in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Noida said they got only about 10 units and were charging Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh above the official price. With the top extra, the cheapest model would cost Rs 3,99,900, nearly Rs 4 lakh.

The All India Mobile Retailers Association, a group of phone shop owners, told India Today that some big retailers expected 100 units but got only 5 to 7. The same report says Apple's India online store lets a customer buy at most two iPhone Duo units per order.

It is not just India. Reuters reported that within minutes of pre-orders opening, Apple's estimated delivery dates slipped to late January.

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Who else makes folding phones?

Apple is late to this party. Samsung and Huawei have sold folding phones for several years. In India, the Samsung Z Fold 8 series sells for Rs 1.79 lakh to Rs 2.6 lakh, the top price being for the 1TB version. So the cheapest iPhone Duo costs Rs 39,900 more than the priciest Z Fold 8 model in that range.

Analysts quoted in the PTI report estimate that the Duo could take around 24% of the foldable phone segment, where it competes with the Z Fold 8. Market share is your slice of the total pie: if 100 foldables are sold, about 24 would be iPhone Duos.

Pathak told India Today he expects foldables in India to cross 1 million sales a year next year. He also said he does not expect Apple to push Samsung off the top spot as the biggest seller of foldables. Instead, he believes the Duo could help the whole category grow and push app makers to improve their apps for folding screens.

Globally, research firm IDC expects Apple to take 44% of foldable phone value in 2026 on 31% of units. In simple words, Apple may sell fewer phones than its rivals but earn more money from them, because each one costs more.

What do reviewers say?

Reviews are mixed. Reviewers praised the strong, barely visible hinge. Some said apps from other companies still need work for the new screen size, and several well-known reviewers said the Duo is not for most Apple users. Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee called it "a really fun phone" for people who can easily afford it, but a likely no for regular users who mostly text and scroll.

Why this matters for young Indians

Very few students will buy a Rs 3 lakh phone. But Francisco Jeronimo of IDC told Reuters that Apple's entry "could bring the format to a much broader audience". More buyers usually means more apps built for folding screens and more rival models. For now, the iPhone Duo's first week in India shows that even at the price of a small car, a new kind of phone can be booked out before it reaches the shelf.

Sources

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