Apple has made its biggest bet yet on the future of the smartphone, unveiling the iPhone Duo, a $1,999 foldable device designed to challenge Samsung and Chinese manufacturers that have dominated the emerging category for years.

The launch represents Apple's most significant overhaul of its flagship smartphone since the iPhone X was introduced in 2017, and places new Chief Executive John Ternus at the centre of a major strategic shift as the company seeks to strengthen its position in an increasingly competitive artificial intelligence era.

Apple is betting that the combination of a distinctive design, a large foldable display and its longstanding emphasis on privacy will persuade consumers to embrace a form factor that has so far remained a relatively small segment of the global smartphone market.

Samsung and Chinese manufacturers, including Huawei, have been selling foldable smartphones for several years, but the devices have yet to achieve mass-market adoption. Analysts have argued that Apple's entry could provide the catalyst needed to take foldable phones beyond their current niche.

The company successfully helped popularise other emerging consumer technology categories, including smartwatches and wireless earbuds, after entering markets that already had established competitors.

The Duo is designed in the shape of a passport, with rounded edges and a large internal screen that opens horizontally to 7.6 inches (19 cm) diagonally. The display can also be viewed vertically, while a smaller external screen allows the device to function as a conventional smartphone when folded.

Apple said the Duo is its thinnest iPhone when opened, although the device remains thicker than some foldable phones produced by Chinese rivals.

The company has also focused heavily on the hinge and overall usability of the device, seeking to address criticisms that some existing foldables are cumbersome for everyday activities.

Ternus, who previously headed Apple's hardware operations, used his first major product presentation as CEO to argue that the Duo offers a more practical alternative.

He criticised existing foldable phones as awkward and poorly suited to common activities such as scrolling and watching videos, saying Apple had designed the Duo to deliver an iPad-like experience in a pocket-sized device.

"It's entirely new and at the same time remarkably familiar. A similar size to your passport, it feels familiar to hold and comfortable to use with one hand," Ternus said.

The company highlighted the Duo's custom hinge, dual displays with a consistent aspect ratio and titanium body as key elements of the design.

The stakes are particularly high for Apple because the iPhone remains the company's most important product. The iPhone generated $209.6 billion, or slightly more than half of Apple's total revenue, in its most recent fiscal year.

Analysts see major opportunity

Apple's challenge will now be convincing customers that a foldable iPhone costing nearly $2,000 is worth the premium.

Analyst firms such as International Data Corporation have predicted strong demand, with expectations that Apple could sell every foldable iPhone it is capable of producing and capture about 40 per cent of the foldable smartphone market by the end of next year.

Apple has positioned the Duo not simply as a premium phone but as a productivity device.

During the presentation, executives demonstrated the device being used for Zoom calls involving multiple participants and displayed a wider version of the Slack messaging application.

The larger internal display will also allow users to run multiple application windows simultaneously, extending a productivity feature already available on some iPad models to Apple's smartphone range.

Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for Data and Analytics, Devices, at IDC EMEA, said Apple's late arrival in the foldable market could nevertheless give it an immediate advantage.

"Apple showed up years after everyone else, yet it walks in and sets the rules. Apple entered the foldable market and, in one keynote, set the price and the standard every rival will now be measured against," he said.

Jeronimo identified China as one of the most important battlegrounds for Apple's new device, noting Huawei's dominant position in the country's foldable market.

"The real fight is China, where Huawei owns nearly 80% of foldables. Apple has just given Chinese buyers a reason to look up. Huawei owns China's foldable market today. Apple has just handed Chinese buyers their first genuinely compelling reason to reconsider."

The Duo is scheduled to become available on October 23.

Apple said the device will be powered by its new A20 Pro chip, which is designed to drive the dual-display system while supporting increasingly sophisticated AI workloads.

It will also use Apple's new C2 modem, another step in the company's effort to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm's wireless modem technology.

The battery is rated to provide up to 24 hours of mixed dual-screen use, while Apple said the phone can charge to 50 per cent in approximately 20 minutes.

Despite the scale of the announcement, Apple's shares closed 0.3 per cent lower at $315.34 on Wednesday following the presentation.



Ternus makes privacy central to Apple's AI strategy

The product launch also served as a symbolic introduction to Ternus' leadership.

Former CEO Tim Cook handed over to Ternus at the beginning of the presentation through a video depicting a light-hearted discussion about how the event should begin.

The video ended with a close-up of Cook saying, "Not me. That's your guy," while pointing towards Ternus.

Ternus subsequently used the event to emphasise privacy as one of Apple's key advantages in the rapidly developing AI market.

He described the iPhone platform as a personal AI hub and contrasted Apple's approach with technology companies that rely heavily on collecting and storing users' personal information.

"Honestly, trust only goes so far when your data is no longer yours to control," he said. "That's why Apple Intelligence runs on device whenever it can."

Apple executive Lilian Rincon, who oversees AI products for the company and joined Apple from Google earlier this year, also demonstrated an updated version of the Siri assistant.

The AI push extends beyond the foldable model to the company's traditional flagship devices.

Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, which retain the conventional smartphone design. The two models start at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively, representing a $100 increase over the starting prices of the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.

Both models will feature the A20 Pro chip, with Apple promising improvements in processing capabilities for advanced AI models running directly on the devices.

Apple targets AI-generated images

Apple also introduced a new approach to the growing problem of distinguishing authentic photographs from AI-generated or manipulated images.

The company announced Apple Reference Image, a new standard intended to provide information that can help establish the authenticity of photographs taken with the new iPhone 18 Pro cameras.

Apple also said it would support SynthID, an emerging standard designed to identify images created or modified using artificial intelligence.

The Apple Reference Image feature will not be available in the European Union or China.

AirPods and Apple Watch get upgrades

The product announcements extended beyond the iPhone.

Apple unveiled a new generation of AirPods starting at $129, bringing active noise cancellation to its entry-level earbuds for the first time.

The company also introduced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, presenting the devices as major health-focused upgrades.

The new watches feature tools designed to measure recovery and fitness, alongside improvements to heart-rate monitoring and other health-related capabilities.

The broader product lineup reflects Apple's attempt to build a tightly integrated ecosystem in which AI, health monitoring, communications and productivity increasingly work across its devices.

The presence of Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra at the launch was also notable. Apple rarely gives suppliers such a prominent role at its product events, but the appearance comes as demand for high-performance memory grows alongside the company's expanding AI ambitions.

With the global memory-chip market facing supply pressures, suppliers such as Micron are becoming increasingly important to technology companies seeking to equip smartphones and other devices with the hardware needed to run more sophisticated AI systems.

For Apple, however, the immediate test will be the Duo.

The company is entering the foldable market years after its biggest competitors, but with the advantage of one of the world's most valuable consumer brands and a vast ecosystem of devices and services.

At $1,999, the iPhone Duo is an expensive gamble. Its reception will determine whether Apple can do for foldable smartphones what it previously did for smartwatches and wireless earbuds — turn an established but niche product category into a mainstream consumer phenomenon.