The iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable iPhone, but it is not expected to be the last. This, in fact, is just the start of a foldable shift predicted by Bloomberg writer and Apple expert Mark Gurman. Despite its high price, especially in India, the iPhone Duo could become the “predominant foldable phone on the market,” as per Gurman. He also predicts Apple could launch an iPhone Duo Max and possibly even an iPhone Duo SE and Duo Mini in the future.
In a recent Power On newsletter, Gurman made some bold predictions about Apple’s part in the foldable market. He says the Duo will “go down as one of the company’s historic products, eventually turning foldable phones into the new normal.”
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Why is it called iPhone Duo in the first place?
Gurman has an answer for a question many people would have had, considering pre-launch rumours suggested the foldable would be called iPhone Ultra. Turns out, Apple wanted to keep a three-letter “Duo” suffix similar to “Air” and “Pro”, which would allow room for additional suffixes, which would not have worked had Apple used “Ultra”.
Possible iPhone Duo successors
Given the “Duo” suffix Apple has chosen, Gurman suggests that Apple’s foldable pipeline could include the iPhone Duo Max, which could feature a larger display. He wasn’t clear whether larger meant taller, like the Galaxy Fold8 Ultra, or larger in width. That said, a book-style foldable seems like the logical next move for Apple if it wants to take on Samsung and Google.
Gurman also predicts a possible iPhone Duo SE or Duo Mini, the former offering stripped-down specs to target a more affordable price point, as the SE series is known for, while the latter suggests a clamshell design.
Foldables are still niche, but Gurman believes the iPhone Duo can make them mainstream in a way other foldables haven’t been able to so far. He predicts “the iPhone Duo will help make foldables the market-leading phone form-factor in a decade.”
As for future iPhone Duo models, it’s too early to talk about specifications at the moment, but Gurman believes the third-gen iPhone Duo will get Face ID and a telephoto camera. These predictions seem plausible, but there’s a long way to go before we can see any of this come to light. For now, we have the iPhone Duo to look forward to, which goes on sale in October with a starting price of Rs 2,99,900.
