Apple's First Foldable iPhone Duo Aims to Revive a Stalling Premium Segment Dominated by Rivals

Apple has put a price on its first foldable: Rs 2,99,900 and up for the iPhone Duo, unveiled at an event in California. Hardware chief John Ternus, as quoted by the Indian Express, described it as a phone that keeps what people expect from an iPhone while offering the largest display Apple has ever put on one, in a body that still fits in a pocket. The logic, he said, is that doing more requires more screen space.

The Duo is entering a market that is not in good shape. Foldables have existed for more than seven years, backed by makers such as Samsung and Huawei, yet they remain a niche within the Android world, at roughly 2 per cent of devices sold. Research firm IDC says global foldable shipments fell 15 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026. Huawei holds half of global foldable units and 55 per cent of value, according to IDC's figures for the second quarter of 2026. The Indian Express reads that as demand on the Android side having plateaued.

The case for Apple is that it has repeatedly taken features and products that others pioneered and made them mainstream. A halo product also helps the rest of the market, since cheaper models that imitate it tend to sell better. The article is cautious, though. Samsung and others have tried for years to widen the audience, including by offering foldables at several price points, and interest has stayed low, probably because buyers worry about durability and usability.

IDC's projections are large. It expects Apple to sell 10 million units in the first 12 months and to earn $27 billion from the device, which would be 44 per cent of the segment's value. That estimate rests on an average price of about $2,500, double what iPhones currently sell for on average. Francisco Jeronimo, an IDC vice-president, said Apple should be the single largest contributor to segment growth in 2027, but that foldables will remain a premium slice and Samsung, Huawei and Chinese vendors will not give up volume.

Jeronimo argued that Apple does not need to sell the most foldables to change the category. By anchoring the premium tier and doubling its own average selling price, he said, it turns a stalling, volume-led category into a value engine and forces rivals to compete on Apple's economics rather than their own. He called that the shift the market should watch first.

The design is a departure from earlier folds, which mostly kept a conventional smartphone shape. The Duo uses a passport-size format, with a 5.4-inch outer screen described as easier to hold and use. Inside is a 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR display with a nano-texture, anti-glare cover, titanium backing and a precision hinge. Apple is not alone in the format: Samsung, Xiaomi and others have launched passport-size foldables in recent months. Samsung built its latest foldable cycle around it, moving it into its main foldable naming and calling the older shape the Ultra.

Software is meant to carry the idea. iOS 27 has an adaptive interface that reshapes as the phone opens, folds, rotates or flips. It supports split-view multitasking with two windows of the same app, app pairing and floating video. Apple Pencil support is expected later this year.

The event also covered the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, powered by A20 Pro chips and a new Siri with on-device AI. Sribalan Santhanam, Apple's vice-president of silicon engineering, said the chip has a second neural engine. The phones start at Rs 1,64,900 and Rs 1,79,900, in storage up to 2TB. Entry-level iPhone models are expected a few months later. Apple also launched AirPods 5, Apple Watch Series 12 and the Ultra 4.

What to watch is whether Apple's pricing pulls rivals toward its economics, and whether durability worries ease enough to move foldables beyond that 2 per cent. The author attended on Apple's invitation.