Apple has already run out of the iPhone Duo

Customers will have to wait for months for the new device to arrive

Apple has opened pre-orders for the new iPhone Duo – and it has already run out.

The new folding phone is not even yet on sale. But just half an hour after Apple opened pre-orders for the device, customers were told that they would have to wait for months for it to arrive.

Apple announced the iPhone Duo at an event last month, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. The Duo is Apple’s first ever folding device, and the most dramatic redesign to its flagship product since it was first launched almost 20 years ago.

The more conventional Pro phones went on sale shortly after that event. But Apple said when it announced the new Duo that pre-orders would open on 16 October, with the device going on sale and arriving with the first customers on 23 October.

But even those who went to order shortly after pre-orders open will find themselves waiting long after the phone is released next month. Pre-orders opened at 1pm in the UK or 5am local pacific time – and, just half an hour later, Apple’s website said that any orders would not ship until January.

At 1.30pm UK time, for instance, customers on both the US and UK stores were told that an order placed now would not arrive until 22 January, almost exactly three months after the device goes on sale. That is likely to continue to slip back even further as more orders are placed and Apple works to fulfil them.

The high demand is despite a steep price for the iPhone. The Duo starts at $1,999, or the same in pounds, and additional storage options can take the price up to $3,199.

Rumours have long suggested that production constraints have meant that Apple is unlikely to be able to meet the high demand for the new device. It had warned customers ahead of time that supply would be limited, and that they should make sure they were online as soon as pre-orders opened to maximise their chance of getting the new phone as quickly as possible.

Various reports have indicated that the complexity of the device, including the new designs for the hinge required to allow the screen to bend, mean that Apple has struggled to produce enough of them to meet expected demand. It also comes amid supply problems across the tech industry, as demand for chips from the AI industry mean that parts are both harder and more expensive to buy.

Averytin News Financial update.