Apple hasn't had a real launch-day queue in years. The iPhone Duo just brought one back. According to The Sun, dozens of shoppers braved Storm Austen to line up outside Apple's Covent Garden store from before 7am on Friday — and Apple's VP of iPhone Marketing, Kaiann Drance, flew in from California to be there. Apple set up glowing iPhone Duo sculptures outside; employees cheered shoppers in.
"We are always ecstatic to see the customer energy," Drance told The Sun. "I think we felt we had something really special, and it's great to see the reactions showing that people are that excited about seeing iPhone Duo."
First in line was Paul, 58, a tech director who had reserved his unit and squeezed the pickup in before a work meeting. His first impression: "I'll tell you the first thing I noticed, it's not as heavy as everyone was saying in the reviews." He's buying it to retire the iPad Mini he carries everywhere — the foldable's exact pitch.
The catch is supply. Apple told USA Today its stores got only a "limited" number of Duos for walk-in customers today and expects them to sell out quickly; the online store tells shoppers wanting a pickup reservation to check back Saturday. Pre-orders on October 16 reportedly sold out within minutes, pushing some delivery dates into January — Apple declined to confirm that when asked.
This is the tension defining the Duo's debut: extraordinary demand against a manufacturing reality that hasn't changed. Apple raised its 12-month shipment target 44% on launch eve, to 14 million units, but hinge and display constraints are the reason "limited" keeps appearing in Apple's statements. Drance told The Sun Apple is "working hard" to get more stock to meet demand, and we'll see whether that's true by Saturday.
Why this matters: nobody has ever lined up for a foldable at 7am in a storm. If Apple converts that energy into sustained supply, the Duo becomes the category's mainstream moment. What to watch: whether US stores saw lines, what happens when reservations reopen Saturday, and whether those January delivery dates keep compressing.
— via The Sun