Apple set October 23 as the day the first iPhone Duo orders would arrive. Within half an hour of pre-orders opening on October 16, new orders had slid through November and December into January. Brazil is worse.
In Brazil and a few other countries the estimate now reaches early February, per 9to5Mac, which puts iPhoners there more than three months from the moment they tapped Buy. Apple's answer, given to CNBC, is that pre-order demand has been "nothing short of extraordinary." The company says it's working to deliver the Duo as quickly as possible and will keep taking orders online.
Demand is only half of it, and the other half was on the record a month ago. In September, analyst Jeff Pu cut his estimate for iPhone Duo shipments this year to 6 million units from 7 million, and he blamed "hinge constraints" in production rather than soft interest. He put the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max at 72 million over the same stretch, about twelve times the Duo. That's a small run for a phone the iPhone Duo market share forecast already tipped to take a quarter of all foldables. A sellout was always on the cards at those numbers; the surprise is how far the queue ran.
The wait has already fed resellers. Listings for the Duo are up on eBay and X, and some buyers want Apple to find and cancel orders placed by scalpers. Apple's statement doesn't mention them.
My standing rule is that first-gen Apple hardware is for early adopters, and a January delivery is part of signing up for a first-generation hinge. Paying a reseller to skip the line is the move I'd skip. Apple's online store is still taking orders, and the date it shows at checkout is the honest answer.
