Apple Reportedly Sent 80% of iPhone Duo Stock to Stores
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It shouldn’t come as a surprise that when Apple puts a new product up for preorder, it splits up inventory between what ships from warehouses and what goes on store shelves. After all, there are plenty of people out there who don’t pay attention to Apple’s big product events and just want to wander into a store and buy a new device when it comes out.
However, we’ve never had a clear idea of precisely how Apple allocates this stock — until now. While we can’t exactly extrapolate this to every product that Apple releases, it seems that the big iPhone Duo preorder sellout didn’t truly reflect the availability of Apple’s groundbreaking new foldable.
While it only took 30 minutes after preorders opened on October 16 before shipping dates for every iPhone Duo model were pushed into 2027, quite a few customers walking into Apple Stores on October 23 managed to snag an iPhone Duo in person. That doesn’t mean stock was plentiful — there were lineups at many stores, and it also likely depended on where you went — but it wasn’t nearly as bad as some feared it would be.
Thanks to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, we have a pretty good idea why. In his Power On podcast yesterday, Gurman revealed that only one-fifth of the total number of iPhone Duo units made were set aside for online orders; the rest went to stores.
What I’ve since learned from people very close to the logistics for the iPhone Duo [is] that Apple allocated roughly 80% of initial iPhone Duo inventory to its retail stores and only 20% to delivery as well as walk-in pre-orders, so reservations. So for the most part, if you were getting an iPhone Duo in-store on day one, you were getting it by waiting in line.
Mark Gurman
Of course, it’s worth noting the “walk-in pre-orders” aspect he mentions, which might explain why this split existed. Many folks who live near an Apple Store choose the in-store pickup option when preordering, as it’s more convenient than waiting at home all day for a UPS truck to show up.
That inventory has to already be in stores; in fact, it comes out of the stock reserved for walk-in customers — but it may also be why the iPhone Duo was the exception this time around. While there were some reports that in-store pickup was initially available at some locations, most customers preordering were only given the option of having the iPhone Duo shipped to them, with a note on Apple’s website telling folks to check back on October 24 — the day after the launch — for in-store availability.
Further, while some people were able to simply walk into their local Apple Store when it opened and purchase an iPhone Duo, most folks in major urban centers had to line up to get one.
As an educated guess, Gurman believes most stores likely received between 50 and 250 units, although he suspects the Fifth Avenue store in New York City “had a tremendous number of them” because the Apple executives were there for the launch.
Still, 80% of a small number is an even smaller number, and Gurman stands by his earlier comments that Apple flubbed the iPhone Duo launch by going either too fast or too wide.
Effectively confirming an August report that the iPhone Duo could initially be exclusive to the US, Gurman says his sources told him the company considered going both narrower and longer on the launch, but chose to rush it out, for whatever reason.
But the reality is, this thing is in extremely short supply. They made a very limited number of them, and it was a disaster. They initially wanted to release this thing in only the US and China at the end of November, and they went early.
Mark Gurman
That’s not only illustrated by the limited supply, but also by the early issues and “software quirks” with the iPhone Duo as it stands today. It’s also telling that the iPhone Duo launched with iOS 27.1, only to have an iOS 27.2 update drop three days later to add the promised Apple Pencil support.
Then there are the iPhone Duo screens that are already cracking. Gurman correctly emphasizes that these are a small number of units, and while some defects are inevitable, the real problem is that the limited inventory is leaving many customers stuck.
It’s great that Apple is offering free walk-in replacements for defective screens, but that only works if Apple Stores actually have replacements to give out.
Meanwhile, if you’re still hoping to get an iPhone Duo before Christmas, you pretty much have to be checking your local Apple Store stock almost incessantly and be ready to hit the Buy button as soon as one pops up. Gurman says there are also some stores in places like Los Angeles where people are still camping out every night in hopes of getting their hands on an iPhone Duo. While that will undoubtedly slow down in the next few weeks, it’s an open question whether that will be due to demand being met or people simply growing tired of waiting.
