New Delhi: Six million is not an iPhone number. Apple sells that many phones in a quiet fortnight. For a foldable, though, it’s a big debut, and it’s the first real estimate of how the iPhone Duo might do.
The figure comes from Counterpoint Research, which reckons Apple will sell roughly 6 million Duos in 2026. Senior analyst Ivan Lam attached a big condition: it all depends on how quickly Apple can ramp up production of the new hardware. The phone costs $1,999 and goes on sale in October. It sits at the very top of Apple’s lineup, and the wider industry is counting on it to lift interest in foldables, which have stayed a niche.
The stakes are visible in IDC’s numbers. The firm expects foldable shipments to rise 13% to 22.9 million units this year, and says that without the Duo the category would have shrunk. So a single Apple product is the difference between growth and decline for the whole segment.
The Duo isn’t the only Apple story right now. The iPhone 18 Pro family, launched alongside it this month, is doing well in China, according to Counterpoint. Apple released the Pro models this time without a matching base-model upgrade, which pushed upgraders toward the pricier phones. Initial sales came in 12% above the iPhone 17 Pro’s.
That’s against a grim backdrop. China’s smartphone market fell 17% year on year over the summer, with Chinese brands taking most of the damage. Apple ended up with 33% of the market. That’s unusual in a market where Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and Apple normally hold shares of similar size.
Part of the reason is component costs, which are forcing every phone maker to raise prices and lean on revenue per unit to cover weaker volumes. Lam pointed out that Chinese flagships have gone up by more than $200 in many cases. That may have moved the reference point for what a premium phone costs, and it makes the iPhone look better value by comparison.
In other words, rivals’ price hikes are narrowing the gap Apple has always had to explain. Whether that holds once the Duo’s supply picture becomes clearer is the open question.
