Apple's New CEO Calls Early Foldables 'Cheap and Crappy' — Then Asks $1,999 for One

Apple's New CEO Calls Early Foldables 'Cheap and Crappy' — Then Asks $1,999 for One

A cover story, and a blunt quote

TIME put the iPhone Duo on its Best Inventions of 2026 list and Apple CEO John Ternus on the cover. Asked about the foldables rivals shipped in the 2010s, he said: "The other examples in the world felt kind of cheap and crappy." MacRumors and 9to5Mac, which surfaced the remark, stress that it came as Ternus explained why the Duo took so long — not as a verdict on every foldable on sale today.

Apple sketched this out in 2011

Ternus and five other Apple engineers filed a patent application for foldable electronic devices back in 2011, when flip phones were still common, exploring what batteries and circuit boards such a product would need. "It felt clear that we were going to eventually get to a place where OLED displays were going to be flexible," he said.

Samsung shipped first, in 2019

Samsung released its first foldable in 2019, giving it a multiyear head start while Google, Motorola and Chinese brands cycled through generations. By the time the Duo arrives, the form factor is nearly a decade old.

What the Duo actually is

Announced on September 9, it pairs a 5.4-inch outer display with a 7.6-inch inner screen at the same aspect ratio, is the thinnest iPhone Apple has built when open, and carries the A20 Pro chip shared with the iPhone 18 Pro, a grade 5 titanium body, an IP68 dust and water rating, and an iOS 27.1 build tuned for folding. Apple says the closed outer screen covers about 90 percent of the iPhone 18 Pro's display area.

The hinge exists to hide the crease

More than 100 precision components go into the hinge, and the inner surface uses a custom polymer with a nano-texture finish that scatters light to make the fold line disappear in ordinary use. Early hands-on testers say the crease is still physically present, just unusually hard to see. Apple says it is reduced, not removed.

$1,999, the most expensive iPhone ever

Pricing runs $1,999 for 256GB, $2,199 for 512GB, $2,599 for 1TB and $3,199 for 2TB in two colors. In India it starts at Rs 2,99,900.

Apple's line: not two phones taped together

At the launch Ternus mocked rival foldables as feeling "like two phones awkwardly stuck together." In the TIME interview he added that Apple refused to simply combine two phone shapes into "this weird square thing," starting instead from what a large-screen experience should feel like. Design VP Richard Dinh credits Ternus with giving the team the confidence to push innovation and manufacturing boundaries, including travelling worldwide to connect suppliers on the new surface.

Why the wait

Ternus frames early foldables as fragile, impractical, creased and badly built, and argues those failures damaged the whole category. TIME reports Apple's design team faced pressure to accept display materials similar to competitors'; Ternus told engineers to keep looking, which led to the custom polymer surface.

Samsung and Nothing push back

Samsung Mobile US posted on X within hours of the launch: "Let us know when you're done reheating our leftovers." The Galaxy Z Fold 8, launched in early August at $1,899, has since been discounted to roughly $1,649–$1,699. Samsung says Fold 8 demand is up 16 percent since launch and that Google searches for its foldables jumped 300 percent in a month. Nothing CEO Carl Pei called the Duo "a waste of money," citing the missing telephoto lens, the absence of Face ID, a 12-megapixel inner selfie camera against the iPhone 18 Pro's 18-megapixel unit, and no LiDAR.

Analysts split on the first year

TrendForce sees about 20.2 million foldables shipping in 2026, with Apple near 5 million units (24.8 percent) and Samsung near 7.1 million (35.1 percent). Counterpoint expects the category to grow about 20 percent this year, with Apple grabbing roughly 28 percent almost immediately and 40 percent by 2027 — even though foldables remain only about 2 percent of all smartphones. IDC forecasts more than 17 million units by 2027 at an average price above $2,550. JP Morgan holds a $360 price target and models 8.5 million Duos in the December quarter; Ming-Chi Kuo estimates 7 to 8 million assembled units in the second half; Jeff Pu cut his 2026 figure from 7 million to about 6 million, blaming hinge constraints.

Pre-orders, launch and the memory problem

Pre-orders open October 16 at 5 a.m. Pacific, with availability October 23 in the U.S. and more than 70 other countries, and 28 more markets on October 30. Ternus also used the interview to flag supply: "The constraints in memory are absolutely a crisis," he said, adding that "all options should be on the table" — read as leaving the door open to Chinese memory and processor suppliers. Marketing chief Greg Joswiak said Siri AI is aimed at everyday users, adding that Apple does "not feel threatened."