Apple doesn't know when there will be more foldable iPhones after running out
The $1,999 foldable sold out shortly after launch as the company replaces devices with cracked folds and faces chip and memory bottlenecks.
BY THE X-TRADER NEWS NEWSROOM · REPORTING FROM BBC BUSINESS · 3 MIN
Apple launched the iPhone Duo, its foldable model, for US$1,999 (£1,999 in the UK), and the device sold out immediately upon debut. According to BBC Business, the company does not yet know when there will be new units. New COO Sabhi Kahn said it is “difficult to predict” the balance between supply and demand.
Some buyers report cracked screens. According to BBC Business, Apple attributes the problem to a flaw that caused cracks in the internal fold of a “small number” of devices, and the company says it will replace them. The case draws attention because it touches on the main novelty of the product, precisely the part that most requires engineering and quality control.
John Ternus, CEO since September, replaced Tim Cook and called the reaction to Duo cause for excitement. The balance sheet for the quarter ended September 26, which did not include Duo sales, shows the strength of the traditional iPhone: up 17%, with revenue of US$57 billion. Apple claims to have sold more iPhones in the last year than ever before. The Mac advanced 27%, to US$ 10.7 billion, a record for the quarter, and total revenue for the year reached US$ 479 billion, with growth of 15%. On the other hand, the iPad fell 10% and wearables, such as headphones and the Watch, fell 7%.
The supply limits go beyond the foldable. Also according to BBC Business, restrictions on chips manufactured using advanced processes, mainly produced by TSMC, in Taiwan, are expected to continue in 2027 and affect the iPad and Mac more. On the cost side, Ternus described the rise in memory as “unprecedented”, and the demand from data centers for artificial intelligence, with clients such as OpenAI and Anthropic, puts pressure on prices. Cook had already compared the rise in data center costs to a thousand-year flood at the beginning of the year. To pass on some of the pressure, Apple raised prices on almost all hardware by about 20%.
The scenario shows a company with strong demand and limited room for maneuver. Demand above supply in a new product, chip bottlenecks and rising memory costs force Apple to choose between prioritizing volume, preserving margin or accelerating production of a format that still needs to prove its durability on a large scale.
What changes for the investor
The case shows how the demand for artificial intelligence can compete with consumer products for capacity and components. If pressure on memory and chips persists, hardware makers' margins are likely to depend more on pricing and inventory decisions. For now, the foldable weighs little in the numbers, as the analyzed balance sheet did not include its sales. In the next results, it is worth observing how Apple separates the price effect from the volume effect and how much the screen problem can increase replacement costs. This reading is not a recommendation to buy or sell, nor a price projection.
Automatically translated from Portuguese.
