Will Oremus, writing for The Atlantic last week, “Okay, Sure, a Folding iPhone” (gift link):
Apple’s next big invention, the company revealed at a launch event in Cupertino, is a $2,000 iPhone that sports — get ready — a “remarkable hinge.”
Is it not possible for a hinge to be remarkable?
This is the iPhone Duo, a foldable gadget that opens like a book to reveal a capacious 7.6-inch screen. Billed as the most versatile iPhone, it can be used in folded or unfolded form, and in split-screen or full-screen modes. The screen appears seamless when open, which is a clever engineering feat. Yet an iPhone that blossoms into an iPad Mini seems unlikely to change many lives — especially at the price of a MacBook Pro.
Why is it strange for an iPhone to have a similar price to a MacBook Pro? For many people the phone is their primary computer, the most important and personal device in their life. Not me. Not Oremus. Probably not you. But I bet there are a lot more people out there who would rather have a $2500 iPhone and a $700 MacBook Neo than who would want a $2500 MacBook Pro and a $700 iPhone.
The oddity isn’t that the Duo is priced from $2000–$3200, it’s that it’s taken Apple 20 years to get to an iPhone with prices like this.
And foldable smartphones have been on the market since Samsung popularized the category, in 2019. In the pantheon of “one more things,” the Duo feels like a dud.
This is half correct. Samsung has had foldables on the market since 2019. They have, as yet, not been popularized. “The Duo feels like a dud” has a bit of “No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.” energy to it. If an all-new iPhone form factor doesn’t qualify for “one more thing” not much will.
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