Apple’s ‘major mistake’ with the iPhone Duo isn’t actually a mistake at all
Macworld ·
Macworld Is there any other company in the world whose followers obsess over how many units the company sells more than Apple? Maybe the Macalope’s wrong and somewhere out there are fans of the Hidden Valley Ranch company poring over rumors about the relative sales of Spicy Hot Honey versus Sizzlin’ Nashville Hot, or fret over rumors of devastating production cuts to the Creamy Jalapeño line, but he doubts it. First of all, who doesn’t like Creamy Jalapeño? Why would there ever be production cuts to that line? It makes no sense. iPhones, however, are different. Every year they get production cut rumors. And this year is no different: Apple cuts iPhone 18 Pro orders due to soft demand . Nobody likes maroon. The Macalope could have told you that. It’s just a bad color. This “news” comes from none other than Nikkei, purveyors of bombastic iPhone production cut rumors since 1973, a full three years before Apple was formed. No one had any idea what they were talking about for 34 years. Nikkei’s most garment-rending rendition was the 2017 iPhone X production cuts , which the outfit said were of such magnitude that Apple was producing negative iPhones, actually pulling already manufactured iPhones apart and putting the aluminum back into the ground. Okay, not really, but it was wildly off, so take these reports with a salt-lick-sized grain of salt. It’s probably true that the price increase on the iPhone Pro line has not helped its attractiveness. Or maybe people were drawn to another, even more expensive option, because Apple apparently can’t make iPhone Duos fast enough. Certainly not fast enough for Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who said Apple made a “major mistake” with the iPhone Duo. What is this “major mistake’,” you may ask? Were credit cards charged twice? Thrice? Did every iPhone Duo ship with a dirty hypodermic needle in the box, just waiting to stab unsuspecting customers? Did some of the profits from each Duo go to a ridiculous vanity project , the real goal of which was to force companies to curry favor with a kleptocratic regime? [Turns and stares unblinking into camera for 45 minutes] If you’d like to receive regular news and updates to your inbox, sign up for our newsletters , including The Macalope and Apple Breakfast , David Price’s weekly, bite-sized roundup of all the latest Apple news and rumors. Foundry Well, according to Gurman, the “major mistake” was selling them before it had enough inventory to meet demand. Definitely an unprecedented event–or not: “iPhone 4 pre-orders from Apple now pushed back to July 14” . Indeed, the Macalope himself vaguely recalls having to wait two months to get an iPhone 4 back in the day when the kids still said “back in the day.” Two months, of course, is not quite the three months would-be Duo owners have to wait now, but the iPhone 4 didn’t have an entirely new conceptual form factor, featuring a hinge and a foldable screen. All it had was a slightly janky antenna . Was Gurman not able to get an iPhone Duo delivery date in 2026? Is that what this is about? Because as far as “major mistakes” go, selling as many as you can make seems a pretty great mistake to make. Anyway, fear not, because Apple is on it : “ Apple increases iPhone Duo orders by 30% “. It is extremely unclear whether the current shortage is because of the unexpected popularity of the Duo or the relatively low number of units Apple was able to get built. Most likely a combination of both. Apple sure picked a good year to move the base iPhone line to a spring release schedule, though: “IDC: Apple closes in on Samsung as global smartphone shipments see record decline in Q3” Apple shipped fewer phones because it moved a whole line to spring. What’s your excuse? The Macalope has always maintained that profit share is better than market share, but hey, if you can get both, so much the better. Speaking of spring, get ready for a big one, at least sales-wise: “The standard version of the iPhone 18 is scheduled for production at the end of November, and the stock size seems quite large,” according to Fixed-Focus Digital , who has correctly reported Apple-related leaks in the past. Year-over-year comparisons are going to be wack as the kids who used to say “back in the day” back in the day also used to say. The Macalope realizes he’s putting a lot on these fictional kids of 2010, and he apologizes for any stress they may have incurred, temporal mechanically speaking. The next year may make both Apple and its customers a little uneasy as the iPhone lineup gets rejiggered, but the Macalope suspects it’ll all work out in the end.