Small hands may prevent giant sales for Apple’s (AAPL) first foldable phone, known as the Duo.
“While this seems to be fashionable, we are not sure whether this size is preferred by consumers (it is harder to hold the phone and operate the screen with one palm, especially for those with smaller hands),” Jefferies analyst Edison Lee warned in a note on Thursday. “Moreover, our supply chain checks indicate Apple would introduce a 2nd-gen foldable next year in a normal size (likely at an even higher price), which means the Duo could be a one-off model. That may cause some consumers to wait for the 2nd-gen (normal size) version.”
New Apple CEO John Ternus debuted the Duo at the normal glitzy annual product release at the tech giant’s HQ.
The device features a passport-like design that opens and closes like a book.
The Duo sports a 5.4-inch upfront display. When the device is opened, a massive 7.6-inch display is revealed, ideal for watching movies, playing games, working, and multitasking. But that’s also not ideal for people who have spent years using their iPhones with one hand to text, scroll, and swipe.
The iPhone Duo will start at $1,999, in line with speculation ahead of Apple’s annual event. The most spec’d-out model will set someone back about $3,199.
Apple shares finished Wednesday’s session down slightly. The stock rallied slightly in early Thursday trading.
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Others agree the unveiling of its new Duo foldable iPhone may not have been a “Steve Jobs” moment — a game-changing moment that triggers massive uptake in a piece of tech hardware — for Apple.
“The best characterization I can give is, looking at the foldable phones that have been out in the market, this is not new,” AT&T CEO John Stankey told Yahoo Finance from the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Tech Conference.
He added, “Android users are as passionate about Android as iOS users are about iOS. [They’re a] smaller percentage of the US market, but they are still passionate, and there’s been some really good foldable devices in the Android ecosystem for a couple of years. And what we’ve seen is that it tends to function more as a specific niche type application as opposed to it’s broadly accepted.”
Brian Sozziis Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor, host of the ‘Power Players With Brian Sozzi’podcast and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X@BrianSozzi,Instagram, andLinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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