iPhone Duo Sells Out in Seconds! Apple China Site Crashes, Backlog Into 2027, Sales Top 10x Huawei’s

Get ready, guys. Countdown. Three, two, one. It's eight o'clock. Pre-orders for Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, opened in mainland China at 8 p.m. on October 16th, triggering a nationwide buying rush. Heavy traffic briefly crashed or slowed Apple China's website that night. The first batch sold out in under a minute at official stores on Tmall, JD.com, and Douyin. It's 8.03, and we still can't get in. Nothing on third-party platforms. Refreshing the official website does nothing either. Is this even working? Can we get one? We haven't even loaded the page. We've been refreshing for 5 minutes. We might have to keep going for 10 minutes, and still nothing. The tablet won't load. Look how fast I'm tapping on this phone. Still can't get in. Whoa guys, iPhone Duo delivery dates are already out to January 23. That's crazy. I used several accounts and got some December deliveries. So if yours arrives in December, you should be able to make money. It's already out to January 23, 2027. Hang on, let's check the Hong Kong version. That's also January 23, right now. Unbelievable. If yours arrives in December, don't cancel it. Get ready to make money. If you saw a bunch of people standing around outside at about 8pm on October 16th, they were getting ready to buy an iPhone. The signal upstairs was terrible, so I told them to find an open-air parking lot. The signal is better here. First, close the background apps. We're at 57 seconds now. When you open it, all you get is a spinning circle. It'll probably keep spinning at 8 o'clock too. Swipe the app closed and reopen it. Keep doing that until it loads. Then it comes down to how fast you can tap. I feel like even more people are trying tonight than when the iphone 15 pro came out way more phone shops across the country know there's money in this they all want to resell them i finally got in it took 13 minutes to get my first one i was five seconds late and now it won't ship for seven weeks how did you do i'm still stuck here i can't even pay i got three or four my younger brother got three or four xiaolin got one for launch day not bad did you get any for launch day i didn't pay until 8 10 so probably not I'm done. Zero. It kept showing errors when I entered my address and tried to pay. Okay, we're wrapping up at 8.17. There were about 5 of us, and we got 10 phones. But probably only 1 or 2 will arrive on launch day. Guys, the iPhone Duo was really hard to get this time. There are more than 20 people at our company, and I was the only one who got one. My WeChat Moments feed is flooded with posts. Almost everyone who managed to order is getting November, December, or January delivery. If you got one from the first batch, congratulations. Basically, you're going to make a lot of money. The wild thing about the iPhone Duo isn't just that it's number one in sales. It's number one while charging the highest price. That seems to defy how the market works. Come on, Apple. If you're going to do this, do it properly. You said sales started at 8, and I was there at 8. Then you said, don't worry, just wait a little longer. At 8.05, you said, excited? Don't leave this page. i was definitely excited i finally got in at 809 i saw at least seven eight maybe nine foldable phones available but when i tried to view my bag that little circle just kept spinning it wouldn't load i finally reached payment and then it said sorry pickup isn't available in this area out of stock i just want to know who actually got the phone that went on sale tonight why couldn't i get one? What did I do to deserve this? Who got one? Seriously, who got one? Let me see. When iPhone Duo pre-orders opened at 8pm on October 16th, more than 3 million people had registered their interest on JD.com alone. Most opened the page only to see sold out. iPhone Duo pre-orders open. The topic topped the trending list on Weibo. Apple has prepared just 6 million phones worldwide this year, with fewer than 2 million allocated to the greater China area. The hinges and ultra-thin glass are difficult to produce without defects, leaving output far behind demand. Apple said pre-order demand was extraordinary, and that it was working to deliver phones as quickly as possible. We'll pay 10,000 yuan extra for the iPhone Duo. I had no idea this year's market would be so crazy. There were more than 10 people in our shop, and not one got a launch day phone. Everything we clicked showed December delivery. How much? 23,000 yuan? What was the original price? 15,999 yuan. That's crazy. It's 6,000 yuan extra for 256 gigabytes, 10,000 extra for 512 gigabytes, 15,000 extra for one terabyte, and 20,000 extra for two terabytes. The wildest part is that iPhone Duo orders are already out to January 23rd next year. You won't get it until next year, and the price is up to 23,000 yuan, or 3,200 U.S. dollars. That's enough to buy a car, a Wuling Hongguang mini-EV. An iPhone Duo has already become a sought-after gadget reselling at steep premiums, even before Apple's regular retail sales begin. Resellers are testing how much extra buyers will pay. The iPhone Duo starts at 15,999 yuan in mainland China, about 2,200 U.S. dollars. The top 2TB version cost 26,499 yuan, or about 3,700 US dollars. On the first night, orders available for pickup on October 23rd generally carried resale premiums of 4,000 to 7,000 yuan. On resale platform Dewu, a black 1TB model was listed for nearly 29,000 yuan, about 4,100 US dollars. A buyer in Sanshi posted that they had ordered a 512GB iPhone Duo in Starlight White from Apple's website for about US$2,500. With delivery available on October 23rd, they were offering to resell it for 5,000 yuan extra. A Chinese dealer said the first batch was extremely limited. The store expected to receive only a few phones, meaning anyone wanting one in October would have to pay extra. A seller with years of experience in the phone business said current premiums range from 3,000 to 8,000 yuan. Paying about 10,000 yuan extra would guarantee a sealed new phone on launch day, October 23. Social media users said everyone's a scalper. Scalpers buy up large quantities outside regular retail channels, often by hiring people to line up or using technology to place orders quickly. They then resell the goods at higher prices to people who actually want them. The huge potential markup drew in professional scalpers, tech enthusiasts, and ordinary people alike. Many saw buying a phone as an investment, with a quick resale bringing in thousands of Yuan. One commenter joked, 80% are scalpers, selling to the 20% who actually want the phones. Whether you really want one or just want to make money, basically the whole first batch is in scalpers' hands. The only difference is whether you're a professional or doing it on the side. Everyone complains about scalpers, but everyone's becoming one. Weren't people saying the iPhone Duo overheats badly and has design problems? Yet so many people are trying to buy it. Remember your childhood dreams? Teacher, scientist, doctor? Apparently you all forgot and became scalpers instead. Now you've bought up everything, and I couldn't get a single one. Many people were unprepared for how hard it would be to order an iPhone Duo. Buyers flooded every sales channel at once. One complaint summed up the frustration. I don't understand who can actually get one. A username Xia Li said she kept trying until shortly after 8pm, then gave up. Can you believe it? Taobao, Tmall, JD.com, Apple's website. I couldn't load a single page. Everything was frozen. Before sales opened, JD.com even offered an early bird worry-free benefits package for 7,999 yuan, or 1,100 US dollars. It included accessories and extended warranty coverage. But its key benefit was a guaranteed opportunity to buy an iPhone Duo early. Commenters called it official scalping. The package also sold out quickly, reflecting the intense demand. Speculation had started more than a month before pre-orders opened. The iPhone Duo was unveiled early on September 10, and expensive resale listings soon followed. A 256GB model was offered for as much as 59,999 yuan, or 8,400 US dollars. Posts offering to order phones for others also spread. Fees ranged from hundreds of yuan to more than 1,000 yuan. One offer read, 5,000 yuan extra, no bargaining. Scalpers were prepared for a big payday. Industry insiders and tech vloggers say the buying rush mainly reflects limited early production. Complex hinge assembly and bonding the flexible display leave initial supplies extremely tight. It does not mean the phone is an irreplaceable necessity. As factories reduce defects over the next month or two, official supplies should improve. Buyers who can wait have little reason to pay scalpers extra. Even before pre-orders opened, people had formed buying groups on social media to share tips. One buyer who ordered through Apple's shopping app posted that a delay of just 10 minutes had pushed their shipping date to November 28th. Attention is now focused on the first batch going on sale October 23rd. Those phones are the scarcest and most sought after. Used phone dealer Li Bing blamed Apple's limited production capacity. The iPhone Duo's hinge contains more than 100 precision parts and uses 3D printing. The complex process means more units fail manufacturing checks, and increasing output takes time. Li Bing said, I expect launch-day premiums to run several thousand yuan. After that, it will depend on the market and how customers respond. The iPhone Duo has the largest screen and the highest price of any iPhone offered so far. Its wide, book-style design opens horizontally to reveal a 7.6-inch inner display. It uses an A20 Pro chip built with TSMC's 2nm process, along with 12GB of memory and a vapor chamber for cooling. Its Fusion Dual camera system pairs a 48-megapixel main camera with a 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera. There is no dedicated telephoto lens. Combined with iOS 27 features designed specifically for the iPhone Duo's folding screen, the phone offers a distinct experience. Its performance and integration with Apple's apps and services place it among the leading models in the iPhone lineup. Beyond the hardware, Apple may be aiming to improve the software and redefine how a foldable phone feels to use. CEO John Ternes has said users constantly switch between the outer and inner screens. The goal for iOS is to make those transitions feel natural and seamless. Industry insiders point to a core advantage Apple has when adopting technologies such as folding screens. Apple controls its iOS and iPadOS operating systems, its A-series and M-series chips, hardware design, Xcode and SwiftUI development tools, and the App Store. That gives it industry-leading control over how its hardware and software work together. Controlling the whole system can make adapting apps for folding screens easier and more cost-effective. Chinese consumers pay high prices for Apple products for more than their specifications. They also trust them to be reliable. In an interview for Time's Best Innovations of 2026, Ternes said Apple began exploring folding screen technology back in 2011. Discussing the iPhone Duo's long development, he criticized early foldable phones. He said the other examples in the world felt kind of cheap and crappy. He did not name a brand. Huawei's first foldable smartphone, the Mate X, launched in November 2019. It folded outward, leaving its flexible screen exposed and vulnerable to damage. Its instructions also warned, do not unfold the phone at 23 degrees Fahrenheit or below. That added to concerns about durability. Hinged durability problems emerged soon after Huawei launched the Mate XT in September 2024, raising questions about whether its quality justified its high price. The 1TB model cost 23,999 yuan, about US$3,400. Even the cheapest 256GB version cost about US$2,800. Many buyers have posted about problems with Huawei's foldable phones. They include leaking displays, calls ending on their own, unwanted switching between headphones and speakers, blank photos, failed searches, and poor compatibility with apps from outside China. Other complaints include glitches when switching screens, failed camera verification, broken forwarding features, and problems running WeChat. These ban hardware, software, and app compatibility. Buyers find that unfinished experience hard to accept in a premium flagship phone. Have you ever seen anything this bad? I didn't even touch the screen, and it's lifting up on its own. What a piece of junk. This is a Huawei phone. I've been a loyal Huawei fan for years, but I've finally decided to give up on it. HarmonyOS still doesn't work with so many apps. Ever since Huawei started getting attacked, I kept telling myself I'd wait. But I've waited so long that I've completely run out of patience. Over the past few years, Huawei and other Chinese brands helped bring foldable phones from concept to market. But fragile screens on early outward folding models, along with high prices and durability concerns shows that reliability remains unresolved. That's still a central concern for buyers. High repair costs also intensify users' anger over quality. Official screen replacements for a tri-fold phone are extremely expensive. An accidental break can leave buyers deeply disappointed, prompting online complaints that the phone is poorly built and too fragile. A premium product has to make buyers feel its high price is justified. When consumers describe a flagship as poor quality at a high price or industrial junk, Huawei's patriotic marketing loses credibility. Market response determines leadership, not slogans. The more Huawei promotes itself as far ahead, the greater the damage when its products fall short.