by Thinus Ferreira
The iPhone Duo as Apple's first foldable phone has sold out in South Africa on its first day on sale in the country on Friday, although an apparent design flaw causing cracked screens worldwide continue to escalate and is placing pressure on Apple to do a worldwide recall.
South African Apple enthusiasts rushed to purchase the highly anticipated iPhone Duo on Friday, causing the company's first-ever foldable smartphone to completely sell out nationwide on its launch day.
Local tech retailer iStore SA has already shifted the device to a "back order" status due to the sheer volume of demand.
This comes despite a staggering local price tag for Apple's new flippy-phone at R48 000 for the base model, R53 000 for 512GB, R63 500 for the 1TB version, and an eye-watering R77 000 for the top-tier 2TB model.
Chris Dodd, iStore South Africa CEO, confirmed that the iPhone Duo had sold out in the country on Friday.
Only a few iPhone Duo's were available for sale as walk-ins with the majority of South Africa's allocation of the open-close passport-size phones which were snapped up out of the pre-order batch the country got.
Unfortunately, the same global and American influencers that Apple rode on to create buzz for its first foldable are now also complaining and alerting about a serious out-the-box design flaw.
it is something that has heavily overshadowed the celebratory launch-day atmosphere for Apple's new CEO John Ternus.
In this rapidly escalating global crisis, severe hardware failures have triggered intense consumer backlash and growing demands for a worldwide product recall.
Video after video has gone viral of people showing their cracked screens and sharing their complaints with the expensive dud phones, and are showing how they're returning their phones within hours.
Within hours of unboxing the premium titanium device, early adopters worldwide began flooding platforms like Reddit and TikTok with images of their nasty looking iPhone Duo display failures - the most in exactly the same place.
The technical defects appear heavily concentrated along the centre crease and hinge of the 19.3cm inner display. Users report hearing a distinct "crunching" or "catching" sensation inside the 100-part precision hinge when unfolding the device.
This is followed by vertical cracking, with physical fractures tearing directly down the centre hinge line, pixel bleeding, and thick white lines cutting across the inner screen, along with white rectangular patches and lines.
In one widely publicised incident from Australia, a buyer noted that their iPhone Duo screen cracked completely after being opened fewer than 20 times and within six hours of purchase, despite no external impact.
Apple has officially acknowledged the situation and in a formal statement, the Cupertino-based giant noted it is "aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units" and urged affected buyers to contact AppleCare for a replacement.
The company is reportedly shipping damaged units back to its California engineering labs for urgent diagnostic evaluation.
This is, however, going to be a logistical, image and commercial nightmare for Apple.
Since initial inventory was already incredibly tight - with standard pre-order delivery estimates already pushed back into late January 2027 - network operators and stores are quite obviously not going to get any replacement parts or replacement devices for months.
This crack screen dilemma and its timing is a massive blow to Apple's attempt to disrupt a luxury foldable market pioneered by companies like Samsung and Huawei.
With the iPhone Duo positioned as the most expensive handset in Apple's history, tech analysts warn that if the screen-cracking reports continue to multiply, a voluntary worldwide recall may become inevitable.
