A new device meant to mark a turn in the long story of pocket-sized computing has been received so eagerly that the people who make it can no longer say when it will be easy to get. Apple's foldable iPhone Duo, priced near two thousand dollars, has emptied the shelves within a week, and the company's leaders admit that the gap between what the world wants and what the factories can make remains stubbornly unresolved. Behind this moment lies a quieter scarcity, of advanced chips and of the memory that holds our photos and messages, both pulled toward the hungry data centres of the artificial in
Apple Can't Say When More Foldable iPhones Will Arrive After Duo Sells Out
Apple can't say when supply and demand will meet again
Mark
Apple's phone sold out in about a week. Why is the company unable to say when more will come?
Mimi
Because the bottleneck isn't just the Duo. Kahn said most Apple devices are short on supply, partly from a shortage of advanced chips, mostly made through TSMC in Taiwan. He expects that to last into next year.
Luke
Worth noting that's one executive's forecast on an earnings call. Apple gave no date and no production figures for the Duo.
Mark
And the cracked screens?
Mimi
Apple said last week it would replace phones hit by a problem that cracked a small number along the inside fold. Nobody mentioned it on Monday's call.
Luke
"Small number" is Apple's phrase. The source gives no count, so we don't know how many are affected or how many replacements are in the queue.
Mark
The quarter's numbers look strong, though.
Mimi
iPhone sales up 17% to $57bn, Macs up 27% to $10.7bn, total sales up 15% to $479bn for the year. But iPads fell 10% and wearables 7%.
Luke
And none of that includes the Duo, which launched after the quarter closed. So those results say nothing about how the foldable is doing.
Mark
What's the cost pressure?
Mimi
Memory prices, driven by data centre demand from AI. Cook called it a "thousand year flood," and Apple has raised hardware prices around 20%.
El Pulso
- The Duo sold out within about a week, and Apple cannot yet say when buyers will be able to order one without waiting.
- Some owners have found their screens cracking along the inside fold, forcing Apple to promise replacements for a "small number" of devices.
- Apple is racing to secure enough advanced microprocessors, relying heavily on TSMC in Taiwan, while memory costs climb to what Tim Cook's successor calls unprecedented levels.
- Prices on nearly all Apple hardware have already risen about 20%, and the shortages are expected to persist into next year, hitting iPads and Macs hardest.
A new device meant to mark a turn in the long story of pocket-sized computing has been received so eagerly that the people who make it can no longer say when it will be easy to get. Apple's foldable iPhone Duo, priced near two thousand dollars, has emptied the shelves within a week, and the company's leaders admit that the gap between what the world wants and what the factories can make remains stubbornly unresolved. Behind this moment lies a quieter scarcity, of advanced chips and of the memory that holds our photos and messages, both pulled toward the hungry data centres of the artificial intelligence boom.
Apple's new foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, sold out almost as soon as it arrived on shelves just over a week ago. At $1,999 in the US and £1,999 in the UK, it still drew plenty of buyers willing to spend close to $2,000 on a handset. When asked on Monday's earnings call when supply might catch up with demand, the company's chief operating officer, Sabhi Kahn, said it was "really hard to predict."
The launch has not been free of trouble. Some buyers have seen their screens crack, and the week before the call Apple said it would replace phones affected by a flaw that caused a "small number" of devices to crack along the inside fold. Chief executive John Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook in September, said he was "thrilled" by the early response and that Apple was working to put the foldables into more hands.
The Duo was not counted in the quarter's results, since it went on sale after the period closed. The numbers that were reported were still strong. iPhone sales rose 17% to $57bn, and Mac sales reached a record $10.7bn. Yet iPad sales fell 10%, and wearables, including the Apple Watch, dropped 7%.
Beneath the shortage lies a deeper strain. Apple struggles to secure enough microprocessors built on advanced nodes, most of them made by TSMC in Taiwan, and those constraints are expected to last into next year, weighing most heavily on iPads and Macs. Memory costs are also climbing sharply, driven by the data centres that power AI chatbots. Apple has responded by raising prices on nearly all its hardware by around 20%.
For now, anyone hoping to buy a Duo is waiting without a date. The questions to watch are whether chip supply eases next year and whether the cracked-screen problem stays confined to the small number Apple has acknowledged.
Apple's new foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, has been sold out almost since the day it went on sale just over a week ago, and the company told analysts on Monday that it cannot say when that will change. At $1,999 in the US, and £1,999 in the UK, the phone found plenty of buyers willing to pay close to $2,000 for a handset.
The update came during a call to discuss Apple's latest financial results. Sabhi Kahn, the company's new chief operating officer, said it was "really hard to predict" when supply and demand would come into balance. John Ternus, who took over as chief executive from Tim Cook in September, said he was "thrilled" by the early reaction and that Apple is working to make the foldables available to more people.
The launch has not been trouble-free. Some buyers have seen their screens crack. Apple executives did not raise the problem on the call, but the week before, the company said it would replace any phones affected by an issue that caused a "small number" of the new devices to crack along the inside fold.
The Duo did not feature in the numbers Apple reported, because it went on sale toward the end of October and the quarter ended on 26 September. Even so, the figures were strong. In those three months iPhone sales rose 17% to $57bn. Mac sales climbed 27% to $10.7bn, another record. Across the full year, Apple's overall sales rose 15% to $479bn, and the company said it sold more iPhones globally over the past year than ever before.
Not every product line did as well. Sales of the iPad fell 10%, and sales of wearables, a category that includes headphones and the Apple Watch, fell 7%.
Behind the Duo's shortage sits a broader constraint. Kahn said most Apple devices are still short of supply, partly because the company has trouble securing enough microprocessors built on "advanced nodes", the chip technology that lets devices run faster. Most of those chips Apple has made through TSMC, based in Taiwan. Kahn said the constraints are expected to last into next year, with iPads and Macs affected most. Apple has repeatedly pointed to "unexpected demand" as making the situation worse, and it has said throughout the year that component limits were weighing on sales even as iPhone sales surged.
Costs are rising too. Ternus said Apple is still seeing "unprecedented" increases in the price of memory, the storage that holds apps, photos and messages. Much of that storage runs through data centres, where demand for space has boomed as AI chatbots and platforms, including those from OpenAI and Anthropic, have become popular. As demand has grown, memory prices have risen for companies like Apple. Earlier this year Cook described the sudden jump in data centre costs as a "thousand year flood." Apple has responded by raising prices on essentially all of its hardware by around 20%.
For now, anyone wanting a Duo is waiting without a date. The things to watch are whether chip supply eases next year, and whether the cracked-screen replacements stay limited to the "small number" Apple has described.
Citas Notables
At this time, it's really hard to predict when supply and demand will be in balance.— Sabhi Kahn, Apple chief operating officer
He was thrilled at the early reaction to the iPhone Duo.— John Ternus, Apple chief executive (paraphrased)
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