Apple’s Priciest iPhone Duo Hits $3,199, Setting Industry Record

Apple Inc.’s breakthrough new iPhone Duo costs $3,199 for the highest-end configuration, setting a record for the price of a mass-market smartphone.

The device is priced at $1,999 for a model with 256 gigabytes of storage, but the variant with 2 terabytes of storage space will cost $1,200 more. Apple is also offering a version with 512 gigabytes for $2,199, and a 1-terabyte configuration for $2,599.

The Duo, Apple’s first foldable model, will test consumers’ willingness to spend top dollar for a smartphone. The $3,199 device costs about as much as Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops and nearly approaches the level of the $3,699 Vision Pro headset — a product that flopped, in part, because of sticker shock.

The phone’s complex engineering and component costs pushed its price to new levels. The device sports two advanced displays, and Apple had to miniaturize elements in new ways. A severe memory-chip shortage, meanwhile, has ballooned costs for the entire consumer electronics industry.

Against that backdrop, Apple still wanted to keep the starting price below the psychological threshold of $2,000. But the higher-level configurations will help improve its margins.

Competitors aren’t too far behind. The base price of the iPhone Duo is only $100 more than the competing Pixel 11 Pro Fold from Alphabet Inc.’s Google and the Galaxy Z Fold8 from Samsung Electronics Co. Samsung’s priciest foldable configuration, the Fold8 Ultra model, tops out at $2,699. But that phone offers less storage than the highest-end iPhone Duo, at 1 terabyte.

Apple is trying to soften the blow with a new leasing program. It lets customers get the basic iPhone Duo for $57.99 per month, while the 2-terabyte version is priced at $92.81. The company is also charging higher prices to some overseas consumers. The Duo, for instance, starts at $2,999 in Canadian dollars ($2,172) and $3,499 ($2,525) in Australian dollars.

For the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, Apple raised prices slightly, increasing each by $100 in the US. It also boosted the cost of iPhone 16, 17e and 17 and Air models by $100 — without updating those devices. It discontinued last year’s iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. The company didn’t raise AirPods or Apple Watch prices.