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IT Home reported on November 3 that Apple COO Sabih Khan acknowledged during the fourth-quarter earnings call that deliveries of the new foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, have been delayed, and that it remains unclear when tight supplies will ease.
He said: “The iPhone Duo is currently in short supply. Progress in ramping up production is going well, and we are working to get this revolutionary new product into consumers’ hands as soon as possible. But it is still difficult to predict when supply and demand will return to balance.”
According to foreign media outlet TechCrunch, consumers who neither lined up at an Apple retail store nor placed an order immediately found that the iPhone Duo would not ship until next year. U.S. telecom operator Verizon even offered gift cards to customers affected by delivery delays as an apology.
The iPhone Duo sold out within hours of going on sale on Apple’s website, with delivery dates pushed into next year. At the time, Apple described demand for the new phone as exceptionally strong, far above normal levels.
In addition to iPhone Duo delivery issues, rising memory chip prices were another focus of the earnings call. Surging demand from the AI industry has driven up memory chip costs, prompting numerous questions for Apple.
However, Apple is not alone in facing supply pressure. As the AI industry’s demand for memory chips surges, hardware makers generally face rising component costs, and device prices risk increasing further.
Sabih Khan also said on the call that Apple had raised the prices of several products, but that the company had made those decisions out of necessity.
To meet demand for the iPhone Duo, Apple has also strengthened its partnership with titanium producer Perryman. According to IT Home, Perryman supplies materials for the model.
Apple CEO John Ternus said in his opening remarks: “The initial response from reviewers and consumers has been very encouraging. We are doing everything we can to get the iPhone Duo into consumers’ hands as soon as possible.”