On October 16, reports surfaced indicating that Apple's inaugural foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, experienced a swift extension of its estimated shipping timeline to December or even further out, merely minutes after pre-orders commenced on Friday. This rapid elongation of the delivery window underscores the robust demand for the device, compounded by constrained supply levels. This scenario is likely to culminate in a scarcity of the $1,999 handset upon and following its official launch date of October 23. Apple's official online store reveals that the anticipated shipping durations for both color variants and across all storage capacity options (ranging from 256GB to 2TB) of the iPhone Duo have been postponed. Certain pre-order customers have voiced that, despite pre-selecting colors and storage capacities ahead of time—a strategy recommended by Apple to streamline the purchasing process—they still faced delays in their expected delivery dates. Moreover, the initial inventory of the iPhone Duo at Apple retail outlets was swiftly depleted following the commencement of pre-orders at 8 a.m. New York time. As Apple's pioneering foldable gadget, the iPhone Duo proves to be markedly more challenging to acquire compared to the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, which debuted in September and were generally accessible to consumers who placed their orders promptly. Last month, market research firm Counterpoint Research projected that Apple's iPhone Duo sales would approximate 6 million units for the current year.