On the evening of October 16th, Apple’s first foldable screen smartphone, the iPhone Duo, began pre-orders in mainland China, with “iPhone Duo Pre-order” trending as the number one topic on Weibo. The Apple official website experienced lagging at times, and some e-commerce channels showed sold-out messages. Resale platforms indicated selling one model at a price 10,000 yuan higher than the official price.
The first foldable screen smartphone from Apple, the iPhone Duo, started pre-orders at 8 p.m. that night and will be officially released on October 23rd. The starting price in China is 15,999 yuan, with the top configuration of 2TB priced at 26,499 yuan.
According to a report from “Extreme News,” after the pre-orders began, the Apple official website and some e-commerce platforms faced lags or were inaccessible, with pages on JD.com and Tmall briefly showing sold-out messages.
Apple customer service mentioned that there were too many visitors, and technical personnel were working on maintenance, recommending users to refresh the pages and try again.
Later on, orders could still be submitted on the official website, but the expected delivery time for some models had already been pushed to next year. A reporter from the mentioned report submitted an order for the Starlight White 512GB version around 8:43 p.m. that night. Before payment, the page indicated an estimated delivery date of January 23, 2027. Selecting store pick-up showed no stock available in the area.
After some official channels displayed sold-out messages, resale platforms immediately started showing price hikes.
The 512GB version in white with an official price of 17,999 yuan was seen on the Chinese e-commerce platform “DealMoon” at a transaction price of about 23,200 yuan, with an increase of over 5,200 yuan. The transaction price later dropped to around 22,300 yuan.
Additionally, as reported by “Phoenix Technology,” DealMoon displayed that a model priced officially at 15,999 yuan was transacted at 25,999 yuan, with a difference of 10,000 yuan. On the second-hand trading platform Xianyu, some sellers set the starting price for the 256GB version at 19,999 yuan, which was 4,000 yuan higher than the official price.
There were also businesses offering pre-ordering services ahead of the official pre-order period. Reports showed that the fees for these proxy purchase services ranged from a few hundred yuan to over a thousand yuan, with the highest quoted at 2,888 yuan.
However, these services did not guarantee receiving the phone on the launch day. A service charging 1,000 yuan noted that generating an Apple official website order number was considered a successful reservation, without refunds or exchanges guaranteed, nor a promised delivery date.
Liz Lee, Vice President of Counterpoint Research, expressed to “Financial Associated Press” that there were obstacles in foldable screen panel production and deliveries, hinge design adjustments, and the time needed to stabilize whole machine assembly production, all of which exceeded expectations, impacting initial supply. The organization forecasted in August this year that global shipments of the iPhone Duo would be around 6 million units, considering it as the upper limit.
Independent telecom analyst Fu Liang mentioned to “China News Service” that the current pre-order performance was not sufficient to prove market frenzy, and it still required observation of the situation one week after official sales.
CEO Zhang Yi from AiMedia Consulting also stated that the recent price increases were mainly due to scarce initial sources and consumer impulse to chase new products. With the official release and increased supply, resale prices might decrease.