Apple debuts passport-shaped foldable phone, called Duo

CUPERTINO, California – Apple on Sept 9 unveiled a foldable phone called Duo, introducing the biggest change in years in the company’s flagship product.

The Duo is sized and shaped like a passport, with rounded edges. It opens into a horizontal, wide screen that also can be viewed vertically. There is a smaller single screen on the front when the phone is folded. When open, it is Apple’s thinnest phone, the company said.

The phone is available in two colours, Star White and Night Sky, with prices starting at $3,099 in Singapore. Pre-orders begin on Oct 16, ahead of its Oct 23 release.

The phone comes in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB storage capacity options.

The Apple folding phone event, the first with new chief executive John Ternus at the helm, is the most noticeable overhaul of Apple’s flagship product since it removed the physical home button from the iPhone X in 2017. The iPhone brought in US$209.6 billion (S$265 billion), or just over half of Apple’s sales, in its most recent fiscal year.

Former CEO Tim Cook handed over the leadership baton to Ternus with a video about how to start the presentation that ended with a close-up of Cook, who said, “Not me. That’s your guy”, pointing back towards Ternus.

Ternus touted the iPhone as a personal AI hub that focused on privacy, saying that others wanted to collect and store personal data.

“Honestly, trust only goes so far when your data is no longer yours to control,” he said. “That’s why Apple Intelligence runs on device whenever it can.”

Apple’s Lilian Rincon, who oversees AI products for the iPhone maker and was recruited from Google earlier in 2026, described an updated Siri assistant that will work with 300,000 apps at release.

Executives also showed off the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max handsets that are the latest versions of Apple’s well-known line, which do not fold. Pricing for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max starts at US$1,199 and US$1,299, up US$100 from the starting prices of the 17 Pro and Pro Max.

Available in burgundy, glacier, silver and black, the iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,899 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max at $2,099 in Singapore. Both models come in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB storage capacity options.

Apple also unveiled a feature aimed at addressing growing concerns over AI-generated and manipulated images.

It introduced a new standard it calls “Apple Reference Image” to prove the authenticity of the images taken with the new iPhone 18 Pro cameras and said it will also support the emerging SynthID standard for identifying images that have been created or edited with AI.

The Apple Reference Image feature will not be available in the European Union or China.

The iPhone 18 Pro will also include the new A20 Pro chip, which brings improvements to help advanced AI models to run directly on iPhones.

“Apple Intelligence and Siri are front and centre. Apple is using its biggest strength, the sheer scale of its hardware base, to make AI an integral part of the everyday experience across devices,” PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said.

Shares were down about 1 per cent during the Apple presentation.

The company also said a new version of AirPods would start at US$129 with noise cancellation, a first for its budget line of earbuds, and that a US$149 version will be available with extra features such as wireless charging, and on-stem volume control that will allow users to adjust the volume by swiping up or down on the stem.

Apple also introduced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, positioning them as major health-focused upgrades. That includes a redesigned sensor system that collects heart rate more frequently than before and powers new features that gauge recovery and fitness.

The company said the watches use new Apple silicon and improved sensors to deliver what it called the most accurate heart-rate tracking in a wearable.

Premium pricing challenge

Ternus previously served as Apple’s hardware chief, but has kept a low public profile aside from a handful of product introductions and sustainability initiatives. It will fall on him to persuade Apple’s customers that they need a foldable device that analysts believe could cost more than US$2,000, a new high for a global brand that has defined mass luxury.

While Samsung Electronics and Huawei Technologies have sold folding phones since 2019, the devices have remained a niche among tech enthusiasts. But even with a steep price tag, analyst firms such as International Data Corporation expect Apple will sell every foldable iPhone it can produce and secure a 40 per cent share of the lucrative niche by the end of 2027.

The Sept 9 event is also expected to mark a major change in Apple’s annual product schedule.

While analysts expect Apple to show off new watches, they anticipate the company will hold off on updates to its more affordable iPhone models until spring 2027 and instead focus only on the new folding device and its iPhone Pro and Pro Max line-up.

The move is aimed at smoothing out Apple’s annual sales cycle, which typically shows a large bump in revenue during the year-end holiday quarter for the US and Europe. REUTERS