I have two thoughts on the iPhone Duo.

First, I think the iPhone Duo is going to be a hit.

Second, It’s not for me. But I kind of want one anyway, partially out of curiosity and partially for work.

My prediction

As far as my prediction goes: I don’t think the Duo is going to be the best-selling iPhone this year. (I don’t think Apple could produce enough of them to make that happen, even if they wanted to.) But I do think it’s going to sell like hotcakes. I think they’re going to sell as many as they can make, and I think every folding phone will look like this within the next twelve months.

I’m 35 years old, and my friends, my parents and in-laws, and my friends’ parents are all talking about this phone. All of them are expressing skepticism: ​“Who on earth would want a folding phone? Why do you need that?”

I am well aware that anything invented after you’re 30 is basically from the devil and unnecessary, so I’m cognizant that this derision from the older generation likely indicates a hit.

A few other times I’ve heard similar sentiments in my lifetime from the same age range:

  • “This iPad thing. What a stupid name. And it’s just a big phone. What’s the point?”
  • “A phone without a keyboard is just dumb. Nobody wants this.”
  • “So you’re telling me people send text messages to the internet and it just posts on this Twitter thing. It’s 104 characters or something. What a joke. Nobody wants that.” (This remains my personal favourite; my father said it after he heard about Twitter on the radio one day circa 2007.)

As far as I’m concerned, ​“Who wants a folding phone?” has claim chowder written all over it.

In addition, I was at the Apple Store on Sunday for an unrelated errand and asked one of the employees if people seemed excited about the Duo, and he told me at least 50% of the people coming by were asking if they could see one. So yeah, people seem very interested.

My own thoughts

As for me, I think the form factor is smart, and the design team has clearly knocked it out of the park. I think people are going to love the matte display outdoors (I would love a nano texture option for my iPhone Pro). And I think people just love their iPhones, and given the option, always want a bigger iPhone.

I’ve been keeping a list of how often the bigger iPhone would have been handy since it was announced. My wife and I just celebrated the arrival of our firstborn. She’s six weeks old now. Until just a couple days ago, she wouldn’t sleep without being held, and I’m already a bit of a night owl, so I took the night shift. A larger single-handed device would have made this much better for me, as you can imagine.

But I don’t think the form factor is for me. To tell you the truth, I want a smaller phone, not a bigger one. My iPhone 17 Pro is already too wide for me. I don’t think my hands are particularly small or particularly large. They’re normal-sized hands for a male. And phones are getting too large for me to use with one hand, which is a problem.

I’d love the Mini form factor with the Pro camera system.

However, at some point, I think I’m going to test the Duo in an Apple Store. Depending how it feels to use, I might end up with one. Maybe not this year, and not as my primary phone. But if this thing takes off, it’ll be important to understand the form factor and how it feels for web browsing and apps. 

Safari on a Duo looks really weird.