Apple says it's 'really hard' to predict when iPhone Duo supply will catch up to demand

Apple said it can't predict when the iPhone Duo supply will catch up with demand, as customers who placed orders online face a long wait time. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images If you're considering Apple’s first foldable iPhone, know that getting your hands on it could take a while.During Monday's earnings call, Sabih Khan, Apple's chief operating officer, told investors that the company couldn’t say when supply of its new iPhone Duo will catch up with demand.“So we're thrilled with the initial response on the iPhone Duo. iPhone Duo is constrained as of today,” Khan said in response to questions from a JPMorgan analyst.“The ramp is going well, and we're working hard to get this revolutionary new product into the hands of our customers as quickly as possible," Khan added. "But at this time, it's really hard to predict when supply and demand will be in balance."The Duo was released on October 23, following preorders on October 16. The folding phone starts at $1,999 and opens like a book to reveal a 7.6-inch screen. Customers ordering online quickly faced a long wait, with delivery estimates slipping into late January 2027 shortly after preorders opened.The supply squeeze extends beyond Apple’s newest phone.Khan said that while strong demand constrained supplies of iPhones, Macs, and iPads during the September quarter, the biggest bottleneck was access to the advanced chipmaking technology used to produce Apple’s processors.“For the December quarter, we expect constraints on Mac and iPad, primarily driven by memory, as demand has been higher than what we expected,” Khan said.Apple is competing for memory with tech giants who are pouring money into AI data centers. Business Insider previously reported that Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron supply chips for both consumer gadgets and AI infrastructure, and as manufacturers shift production toward the booming AI market, device makers face tighter supplies and higher costs. The costs are already weighing on Apple. CFO Kevan Parekh said during the earnings call that, excluding tariff refunds, company and product gross margins would each have fallen about one percentage point sequentially, primarily because of higher memory costs.The shortages accompanied an otherwise strong quarter. Apple reported $114.5 billion in revenue, beating Wall Street’s estimates, with iPhone sales reaching $57.58 billion. Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Katherine Li is a reporter on Business Insider's West Coast business news team. She covers career, the future of work, and how AI is changing hiring practices and workplace trends.Previously, she was a newsroom fellow who wrote international breaking news and produced newsletters for Semafor. Before that, she wrote about climate policies for The Lever, covered the AAPI community for the SF Chronicle as a freelancer, and wrote about the 2019 Hong Kong protests as an intern for The New York Times.She is an alumna of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and a graduate of the international journalism program at Hong Kong Baptist University with minors in French and English literature. Email Katherine at katherineli@insider.com and follow her on Bluesky @katherineli.bsky.social. Apple iPhone AI More Retail