Apple’s iPhone Duo Is on Sale. Good Luck Buying One.

Apple AAPL -0.68%decrease; down pointing triangle wanted a great launch of an innovative product to usher in its new chief executive. But the iPhone Duo, and the supply chain making it, weren’t quite ready.

Apple’s new foldable iPhone went on sale in stores Friday and the reviews that greeted CEO John Ternus’s big release were mixed. Reviewers liked the device’s large inner screen, long battery life and sturdiness. But they panned its cramped front-facing screen, mediocre camera, clunky buttons and heavy weight.

That hasn’t stopped early adopters from jumping on the most novel iPhone since the device’s 2007 debut. Minutes after Apple opened up online sales at 8 a.m. Eastern last Friday, its website was already quoting shipping dates out to January, suggesting Apple hasn’t made enough to meet initial demand.

U.S. orders for the Duo placed in Apple’s online store showed an average shipping delay of 92 days earlier this week, far longer than the iPhone 18 Pro models released in September and the iPhone 17 and 16 families released the prior two years, according to data provider Navi. U.S. telecom carriers with Duo inventory showed shorter wait times, yet Navi reports their lags were still far longer than in years past.

For people hoping to line up to buy the phone in an Apple store, the company’s messaging was lukewarm: “Apple Stores will have limited iPhone Duo available for walk-in customers, and we’re working hard to get this revolutionary new product into customers’ hands as quickly as possible,” it said in a statement.

At Apple’s store in San Francisco’s Union Square on Friday morning, the line stretched around the block, snaking behind the building. The first person in line arrived Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. A software engineer from Bengaluru who introduced himself as Sharath, he got a camping chair from DoorDash as he waited overnight. He lined up because, though he signed in online the minute sales opened last week, he wasn’t able to get a delivery date before January.

At the time of publication, store staffers were reassuring line-sitters that devices would be available for them.

In some countries where walk-in customers are historically welcome on iPhone launch days, including Japan and South Korea, the company said it would only have phones reserved for customers that snagged online stock early.

In-store availability is particularly important for the brand new Duo, said Ron Johnson, a former Apple executive who oversaw its retail arm from 2000 to 2011, when the company launched its first physical stores.

“This new product will be a completely different experience using an iPhone. People have to try that to decide if it’s right for them,” said Johnson. He added that in the early days of the iPhone, Steve Jobs and Tim Cook gave priority to allocation to the stores. “They knew when someone bought in the stores, people would get set up and running well.”

Sales this fall are hard to gauge against prior years, not only because Apple is offering a brand new device, but also because it is staggering device launches: Apple held off on offering a cheaper iPhone 18 base model, which is now expected next spring. Counterpoint Research said sales of this year’s iPhone Pro and Pro Max were up 3% compared with the same models last year in the first three weeks after launch, but overall sales fell.

Even Pro and Pro Max would have been down if not for China, Apple’s second largest market, where they leapt 29%. But the jump in China was because last year’s sales of those models were weak, as Chinese buyers scooped up the base model iPhone 17, said Counterpoint analyst Gerrit Schneemann.

Many Chinese buyers might have waited for an Apple foldable. Folding phones are still relatively new to the U.S. market, but in China they are already popular, with some companies even selling tri-fold smartphones.

Reviewers said that the Duo feels unfinished, a first-generation device with kinks that need to be worked out. A key issue, the lack of apps optimized for the two-screen interior, should be addressed by top developers quickly. But other concerns remain.

“The outer device is, by far, the worst iPhone Apple has ever made. It’s a miserable fat little thing. The inner device is a splendid, joyful, beautiful tablet,” wrote John Gruber, a well-known Apple blogger, in his review. “The decision of whether you might want to buy a Duo is not easy, because only one of its two selves is good.”