Apple's $1,999 Bet: Seven Years Late To Foldables, But Playing By Its Own Rules

The first iPhone in 2007 made touch screens common, years after the technology was invented. Now, Apple is betting its maiden foldable phone can do the same for a design that has stayed niche, despite years of effort from Samsung and Chinese rivals like Huawei.

Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo at its Cupertino headquarters on September 9. The device starts at ₹2,99,900 in India for the 256GB variant, with pre-orders opening October 16 and sales beginning October 23. The 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations are priced at ₹3,24,900, ₹3,74,900, and ₹4,49,900 respectively.

Despite attracting attention with their large screen size, foldable phones have only secured a single-digit percentage share of the overall global smartphone market due to trade-offs including inferior cameras, a shorter battery life and an awkward crease at the screen center once the handsets are unfolded.

Apple is not the first to arrive, and its rivals have spent years building distinct strategies around the format. Samsung has focused on engineering precision and weight reduction. Huawei has bet on tri-fold innovation and chip design. Xiaomi has positioned itself on aggressive pricing. Each has made its own set of trade-offs.

Samsung's Weight Game

Samsung, which introduced the first mass-market foldable in 2019 with the Galaxy Fold, has spent eight generations refining the form factor. The company's latest Galaxy Z Fold8 weighs 201 grams, down from 276 grams for the original Galaxy Fold.

In a blog post published September 9, Samsung detailed how it achieved this: engineers reviewed around 270 components and more than 180 types of auxiliary parts, cutting weight in increments as small as 0.001 grams. The company introduced Flex Titanium, a titanium alloy film roughly one-third the width of a human hair, and redesigned the printed circuit board and MFC antenna to optimise internal space.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 features a 7.6-inch main display and a 5.5-inch cover screen, both with 120Hz adaptive refresh rates. It runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, packs a 4,800mAh battery, and carries an IP48 rating for dust and water resistance. In India, it is priced at ₹1,79,999 for the 256GB variant, ₹1,99,999 for 512GB, and ₹2,39,999 for 1TB.

Samsung has also adopted the short and wide "passport" form factor for the Fold8, a design philosophy it shares with Apple's Duo.

Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research, said this convergence suggests the industry is moving toward a form factor that handles both content consumption and productivity. He added that Apple's inclusion of Apple Pencil support, expected later this year, addresses both use cases.

Huawei's Tri-Fold Bet

Huawei, which does not sell in the US due to sanctions, has taken a different path. The company launched the Mate XT2 on September 7, a tri-fold device that opens twice into a 10.2-inch tablet-sized screen. It is powered by Huawei's new Kirin 9050 Pro chip, which the company says delivers 42% better overall performance than its predecessor. The chip's design, called LogicFolding, is part of Huawei's "Tau Scaling Law" principle announced in May to work around US restrictions on advanced technology.

The Mate XT2 features a redesigned hinge mechanism, improved water resistance, and an optional privacy screen that prevents people nearby from viewing the display. It has a 6.5-inch outer screen, a 50MP main camera with variable aperture, a 50MP periscope camera with 3.5x optical zoom, and a 40MP ultra-wide camera. The device runs HarmonyOS 7 and packs a 5,600mAh battery.

Pricing starts at 19,999 yuan (approximately ₹2.40 lakh) and goes up to 29,999 yuan (approximately ₹3.60 lakh) for the top-end model with 2TB storage, privacy screen, and stylus. Sales begin September 12 in China.

Huawei leads China's foldable market, accounting for 68% of shipments in the second quarter of 2026, according to Smart Analytics Global. The company also leads China's overall smartphone market with a 22.6% share, ahead of Apple's 18.1% and Xiaomi's 12.4%, according to IDC.

Xiaomi's Price Play

Xiaomi launched its first wide-format foldable, the Xiaomi 18 Fold, on September 7, two days before Apple's event. The device features a 7.58-inch inner display and a 5.38-inch outer display, both with 120Hz LTPO panels and up to 4,000 nits peak brightness. It measures 5.02mm thick when unfolded and weighs 219 grams.

The Xiaomi 18 Fold runs on Xiaomi's in-house XRING O3 chip, built on a 3nm process, and features a Leica triple-camera setup with a 200MP main sensor, a 50MP periscope telephoto with 3.5x optical zoom, and a 50MP ultra-wide. It packs a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery with 67W wired and 50W wireless charging.

Pricing starts at CNY 10,999 (approximately ₹1.54 lakh) for the 12GB + 256GB variant and goes up to CNY 15,999 (approximately ₹2.25 lakh) for the ceramic limited edition with 16GB LPDDR6 RAM and 1TB storage. The device is currently available only in China.

Smart Analytics Global said in a note that the Xiaomi 18 Fold is positioned as a halo product rather than a mass-market growth driver, and that Xiaomi is likely to remain outside the top five foldable vendors in China in 2026.

What Apple's Duo Brings

The iPhone Duo adopts the same short and wide form factor as the Galaxy Z Fold8. It has a 5.4-inch outer Super Retina XDR display and a 7.6-inch inner display with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Both screens support ProMotion and Always On at up to 3,000 nits. The inner panel gets a nano-texture finish that Apple says reduces glare and makes the crease harder to see.

The device runs on Apple's A20 Pro chip, built on a 2-nanometer process, with a 6-core CPU and a 7-core GPU. Apple says the GPU is up to 40% faster than the A19 Pro, and the chip's AI processing power is double that of the previous generation. A battery sits on each side of the device, giving 31 hours of video playback on the inner display and 44 hours on the outer.

The camera system includes a 48MP Fusion main camera with sensor-shift stabilisation and a 48MP Fusion Ultra Wide. Apple has built foldable-specific features like Smart Take, which fires the shutter when everyone is posed, and Duo Preview, which puts a live preview on the outer screen for the subject.

The Duo is eSIM-only worldwide and replaces Face ID with Touch ID in the side button. It is rated IP68 for dust and water resistance.

Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst at TechArc, said he expected the price to be around ₹2.5 lakh. "But, there are existing iPhone users who are eagerly waiting for a foldable form factor within Apple ecosystem," he said. "Finding a few thousand such buyers won't be an issue in India for Apple. Apple understands this and that's where it has priced it aligned with the hyper niche positioning."

Kawoosa added that the pricing does not make the Duo comparable with Samsung's Fold or any other foldable. "So the message is loud and clear from Apple that iPhone Duo is not an alternative," he said.

Sravan Kundojjala, a chip analyst, said the Duo's premium pricing gives Apple more room to absorb component inflation, but the folding display, hinge, and more complex assembly also add costs. "With the Duo starting at almost ₹3 lakh in India, we would expect affordability to be the bigger constraint on broad adoption," he said. "It can contribute meaningfully to revenue without contributing proportionately to unit growth."

The Price Gap

The pricing gap between Apple and its rivals is stark, particularly in India. The iPhone Duo starts at ₹2,99,900, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 starts at ₹1,79,999. Even Samsung's 1TB Fold8, priced at ₹2,39,999, costs significantly less than the entry-level Duo. Huawei's Mate XT2 starts at approximately ₹2.40 lakh in China, and Xiaomi's 18 Fold starts at approximately ₹1.54 lakh.

In the US, the gap narrows. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999, while the Galaxy Z Fold8 starts at $1,900.

Pathak said most of Apple's projected share gain will come from expanding the overall category rather than taking share from rivals. "Apple surprised with the global pricing of foldables for sure," he said. "The pricing is spot on. In fact, surprised many people and there are a lot of people who were actually waiting for Apple to launch their first fold."

Pathak said the timing reflects the maturity of the supply chain, particularly hinges and displays. "Samsung has done a great job in terms of helping this supply chain to mature especially with this 8th gen foldable and Apple is coming to the party because they have a huge scale," he said.

The Road Ahead

IDC expects Apple to ship around 10 million Duo units in its first 12 months, generating about $27 billion in revenue, and become the largest foldable smartphone vendor in 2027. Counterpoint Research forecasts Apple capturing 25% of global foldable shipments in 2026, ranking second behind Samsung and ahead of Huawei.

Puneet Gulati, founder and promoter of Go-5 Incorporation, said Apple's projected share suggests brand equity and ecosystem strength can influence an emerging category, but not on reputation alone. "Apple's impact would likely come from combining its brand power with strong design, software integration and ecosystem connectivity," he said. "Entering later may allow Apple to learn from the category's evolution and address existing consumer concerns."

Pathak said China is the one market where Samsung is virtually absent, and where Apple could play a significant role. In North America, he said, competition between Apple and Samsung will be "neck to neck," with Apple's installed base of 1.5 billion users giving it an advantage. "The bigger picture here is not just the share gains but absolute volume and the value growth," he said.

IDC estimates that foldable phone shipments will increase nearly 30% this year, outperforming an estimated decline of nearly 1.4% in non-foldable smartphones.

Kawoosa said Apple's entry adds "the much required reliability" to the foldable form factor. "Some customers and industry watchers would feel if foldable is promising then why isn't Apple there? Now that doubt is dusted," he said.

On the halo effect, Kawoosa said the Duo has established that even if Apple is late, "it is not similar." He added, "It has still brought some new thoughts on the table which I am sure will compel others to introduce in their foldables soon. I think the next generation of foldables from other OEMs will be influenced by iPhone Duo."

Pathak said the biggest execution risk for Apple is consumer education. He said foldables have a novelty factor but also "a big post-purchase stickiness to it." He added that the form factor "builds on you over a period of time because of multitasking, content consumption."

On whether foldables can break out of single-digit penetration, Pathak was cautious. "We don't think it will break unless someone brings it at below a thousand dollars or so," he said. "But now, as you know, the memory crisis and components, everything is expensive, so I don't think that is happening at least for the next two to three years."