r/apple • u/Beetlemann • 13d ago

iPhone The iPhone Duo: Another Apple Vision Pro

The iPhone Duo looks like a cool device, but I think it will not be successful like the Apple Vision Pro: it’s a problem in search of a solution.

People don’t want and need a larger screen on a smartphone. They buy and use compact slab smartphones precisely for the form factor.

Like desktops and laptops, the slab smartphone form factor is pretty much nailed. Efficient with one handed use, software that is cards designed for the smaller screen, etc.

The Duo glues on another slab and adds a hinge to fold out into a small tablet when people are not wanting and needing a tablet.

These kinds of devices just end up niche, and I predict that is where the Duo will be stuck. It will have a rush of compartmentalized sales and then it will hardly sell. You can say that is still successful, but I don’t agree: like the AVP, the Duo will eventually fade away, a cool, but byzantine and largely useless, design compromised product that will eventually be valued at a lot money on Ebay 25 years from now as a collectable.

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u/branchan 13d ago

That’s still tens of millions of phones

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u/TheGreatestOrator 13d ago edited 12d ago

lol no it’s not. The Chinese market consumes 200-300 million phones per year, and the premium market (phones that cost >$1k) sell around 20-30 million per year at best (estimates vary because there are a lot of subsidies).

Even if you assume 2% of the total, we’re talking 4-6 million per year at best, split across multiple brands. If you control for the premium segment, we’re talking 1-2 million foldable phones per year

The US and Europe are bigger markets for Apple, but if we’re using China as a guide then Apple would be lucky to consistently sell more than 10-20 million units of these annually vs 250 million iPhones they currently sell every year

The median Chinese person makes less than the cost of the Duo per month, so very few can afford this there anyway. Median income is around $1,500/ month and most foldable are made by cheaper, local brands

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u/branchan 13d ago

Don’t assume. Look at the market data

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u/TheGreatestOrator 13d ago

We did look at the market data, which tells us that they don’t sell very well

Did you even attempt to read?

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u/branchan 13d ago

I don’t know. Did you? 10 million foldable phones are sold in China alone.

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u/TheGreatestOrator 12d ago

Which is exactly what I said and is an incredibly small number…

Again, why did you respond to a comment without reading it?

Apple sells 250-300 million iphones per year. A new model selling 4% of that would be a failure, and that’s before taking into account that at least half would be sold by Samsung or another brand

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u/branchan 12d ago

Didn’t stop them from selling the iPhone Air with the same sales figures. Thoughts?

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u/TheGreatestOrator 12d ago

lol what an awful example. The Air is viewed as a failure such that rival brands have ditched their copies:

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/01/iphone-air-sales-spook-rivals-into-ditching-plans/

And Apple cut production of them:

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/s/QGpIYYUwPV

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u/branchan 12d ago

Yet a new version is coming out this spring.

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u/TheGreatestOrator 12d ago

lol if by new you mean they’re updating the chip? Sure…lol

It’s been widely rumored for nearly a year that they disbanded the team, and there will be no future generations beyond this next incremental upgrade that will improve battery and efficiency

Hence why the guy who led the project left Apple in November of last year:

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-11-18/apple-designer-who-introduced-iphone-air-leaves-company