iPhone Duo Brings Back the Apple Store Line, and Most New Buyers Now Wait Until January

Apple's first foldable iPhone reached stores in 70 countries and regions on Friday. Queues formed from Austin to Shanghai, walk-in stock ran short, and online orders placed now ship in the new year.

AUSTIN, Texas - The iPhone Duo went on sale on Friday, and for a day the Apple Store line was back. Apple’s first foldable iPhone became available in 70 countries and regions, GSMArena reported, and queues of dozens to hundreds of people formed outside stores around the world, some of them a day or two before the doors opened, according to MacRumors.

Deirdre O’Brien and John Ternus greet customers at Apple Domain Northside in Austin. Image: Apple

Apple put its senior executives on the shop floor. John Ternus, the chief executive, and Deirdre O’Brien, who runs retail, welcomed customers at Apple Domain Northside in Austin, while Greg Joswiak and Vanessa Trigub greeted buyers at Apple Fifth Avenue in New York, the company said in a Newsroom post. Apple also published photos from Covent Garden in London, BKC in Mumbai and Jing’an in Shanghai.

Staff at Apple Covent Garden in London welcome the first customer. Image: Apple

The crowds reflect how little stock there is. Apple warned before launch that stores would have only limited units for walk-in customers and that it expected them to sell out quickly because of what it called “extraordinary” preorder demand. Some stores sold through their launch-day walk-in inventory on Friday, MacRumors reported. Walk-in sales were offered in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Mexico and several European countries, while buyers in markets including China, India, Japan and South Korea needed a pickup reservation. In the United States, Apple limited purchases to two per customer.

The queue outside Apple Jing’an in Shanghai on launch day. Image: Apple

Anyone who did not get in early faces a long wait. Online delivery estimates slipped to late January within the first half hour of preorders on Oct. 16, and shipments for new orders on Apple’s site now point to January. Apple reopened in-store pickup reservations in the United States and Canada early on Saturday, between 5:10 a.m. and 5:15 a.m. Pacific time, but most stores showed no slots, MacRumors said. Pickup also resumed in Britain, Germany, Japan, China and several other countries.

Customers try the iPhone Duo hinge at Apple Domain Northside. Image: Apple

The scarcity has already reached the resale market. Sellers are asking upward of $4,000 for the base model, Yahoo Finance reported, roughly double Apple’s price. In the United States the iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 with 256GB of storage and costs $2,199, $2,599 and $3,199 for the 512GB, 1TB and 2TB models, in Star White or Night Sky. Apple is also pointing buyers to apps rebuilt for the folding screen, including Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+, Zoom and Slack, along with games such as Asphalt Legends and Zenless Zone Zero.