Apple's iPhone Duo Set to Grow into a Full Product Line

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says Apple may expand the new iPhone Duo into a full family of foldable phones, with an iPhone Duo Max, an iPhone Duo mini and even an entry-level iPhone Duo SE. The shift would move the Duo from a single flagship to a multi-tiered product strategy, according to his report.

The choice of Duo over the long-rumored iPhone Ultra makes sense under that plan. Gurman notes the suffixes work more naturally with Duo than they would with Ultra, and that Duo's three-letter form mirrors existing Apple names such as Air and Pro. The word Duo also plainly signals the device's dual-screen nature. Whether Apple weighed the fact that Microsoft once sold a Surface Duo remains unknown.

Gurman's market forecast

Gurman goes beyond naming to predict market effects. He says that "by early next year" the iPhone Duo will become "the predominant foldable phone on the market", and that demand could be "so intense that people will scalp the device for sale overseas, eBay prices will soar, and supply shortages will reach extreme levels."

He adds that strong consumer interest could reshape the category, "turning foldables into the main form of mobile computing and pushing the rest of the industry to dramatically increase its investment in the category."

Gurman concludes that "the iPhone Duo is so impressive that it will turn foldables into the new normal."