Apple has introduced its first foldable smartphone, marking one of the biggest changes to the iPhone since its launch nearly two decades ago.
The new iPhone Duo opens like a book to reveal a 7.6-inch inner display, alongside a 5.4-inch screen when closed. Starting at $1,999, it is also Apple’s most expensive iPhone and puts the company directly into a foldable market already occupied by Samsung, Google and several Chinese manufacturers.
The launch took place during Apple’s first major product event under new CEO John Ternus and was accompanied by the iPhone 18 Pro range, new Apple Watches and AirPods.
But beyond the new hardware, Apple’s presentation also showed how closely it’s designing its next generation of devices around AI.
Apple has taken a familiar approach to foldable smartphones: entering the category years after competitors rather than trying to create it first.
The Duo is positioned at the premium end of an already expensive market. Its $1,999 starting price is around $100 higher than comparable base-storage versions of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 and Google’s Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Storage options extend to 2TB.
When opened, the Duo can run two apps side by side and supports the Apple Pencil. Apple has also adapted iOS 27 for different positions and orientations of the foldable display.
The device runs on the A20 Pro, Apple’s new 2-nanometer chip, supported by a vapor-chamber cooling system and dual-battery architecture. Apple says its Neural Engine offers twice the compute power for running on-device AI models.
Pre-orders begin October 16, with availability starting October 23.
Foldables still represent a relatively small part of global smartphone sales. Yet Apple’s arrival could give the category considerably more visibility. IDC expects Apple to capture nearly one-third of the foldable segment in 2026 and around 40% in 2027.
Apple also introduced the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, both receiving a $100 price increase.
The models now start at $1,199 and $1,299 respectively, with Reuters reporting that higher memory-chip costs contributed to the increase. Both use the same A20 Pro chip found in the Duo and include a new 48-megapixel main camera with variable aperture.
The new lineup therefore pushes Apple’s premium smartphone range further upward in price at a time when the global smartphone market is already mature.
More than 90% of Americans own a smartphone, according to Pew Research data cited by Reuters. For Apple, whose iPhone business still generates more than half of company revenue, persuading customers to upgrade increasingly depends on providing reasons beyond simply replacing an old phone.
A new form factor is one way to create that reason. AI is another.
During the event, Ternus described privacy as central to Apple’s AI strategy and positioned the iPhone as an “intelligent personal hub.”
Apple Intelligence is designed to process AI tasks directly on the device whenever possible, turning to cloud computing when it needs more processing power. Siri is also expanding significantly and will work with more than 300,000 apps at launch, including third-party applications.
That approach could make AI less of a separate application and more of an interface connecting different functions on the device.
The hardware reflects this direction. Apple is emphasizing additional neural processing capacity, memory bandwidth and thermal management specifically to support increasingly demanding AI workloads locally.
The iPhone is therefore evolving on two fronts: physically, through a new foldable format, and digitally, through AI that can understand context and perform actions across applications.
For ecommerce, Apple’s expanding lineup also illustrates how consumer electronics catalogs are becoming more complex.
The Duo is not simply another iPhone differentiated by storage capacity or screen size. Its foldable design introduces characteristics around inner and outer displays, hinge design, device dimensions in different configurations, Apple Pencil support and new multitasking capabilities.
At the same time, AI features vary widely by hardware, software, language, and geography. Reuters notes, for example, that some of Apple’s new AI-related image identification features will not initially be available in the European Union or China.
For retailers selling these devices, accurate product information is therefore essential to help consumers understand the differences.
This is relevant to Icecat’s role in e-commerce. Structured specifications allow retailers, marketplaces, and comparison platforms to clearly distinguish products by attributes such as display technology, storage, processors, connectivity, cameras, dimensions, and supported functionality.
As devices become more differentiated, those details also matter more for AI-powered shopping tools.
A consumer may no longer search simply for “new iPhone.” They could ask an AI assistant to compare Apple’s foldable with a Samsung alternative, find a phone suitable for multitasking, or explain whether a particular AI feature works in their country.
Answering those questions reliably requires detailed product data behind the interface.
Apple’s first foldable iPhone will inevitably attract attention because of its design and price. But the launch’s broader significance lies in how Apple is trying to create new reasons for consumers to upgrade in an increasingly mature smartphone market.
The Duo introduces a fundamentally different physical format, while the A20 Pro and expanded Siri capabilities push AI deeper into the device’s everyday operation.
For e-commerce, these developments create a more complicated product landscape. Devices are differentiated not only by traditional hardware specifications, but increasingly by AI capabilities, regional availability, software compatibility and new physical characteristics.
That makes accurate product content more valuable, particularly as AI itself becomes another way consumers search for and compare those products.
Apple’s newest iPhone may fold in half, but the information needed to understand what consumers are actually buying is only becoming more extensive.
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