// 9TO5GOOGLE — MOBILE & WEB
The iPhone Duo is actually a software story
Good morning, how did you sleep? Me, I had trouble until I started counting the number of times Apple used the word “AI” in its keynote (it was 41). In my dream, I was inundated with Elizabeth Holmes deepfakes and memes, which startled me awake. As I lay in bed, I calmed down by reading about how AI will “kill us all by the end of the decade,” and then I got up and helped ChatGPT do my kids’ homework. Such a great day.
As a reminder, Inbox is the tech newsletter that goes beyond the news cycle. We cover the most important 9to5Google stories from the last couple of days along with a few highlights from around the web. We publish every Tuesday and Thursday, and if you like what you read, please subscribe.
Inbox is written by Daniel Bader. Read previous issues here, and then catch up with Ben Schoon’s excellent Weekender column.
Today’s main story is, of course, Apple’s “Surprise and Shine” event, which debuted two new iPhone 18 Pros, two new Apple Watches, an updated pair of AirPods at a lower price, and a foldable called the iPhone Duo.
As predicted (and pre-empted), the iPhone Duo is a book-style foldable slightly wider and shorter than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. Apple uses a combination of flexible plastic and thin layers of titanium sandwiched between the OLED panel, and claims that the crease is basically undetectable, though we’ll have to see how well that claim holds up over time. Curiously, Apple has also resurrected the under-display camera, which was a mainstay of Samsung’s Fold line until it disappeared in the Fold 7, as well as Apple Pencil support, which Samsung also dropped in the same generation.
To the credit of Samsung, Oppo, Honor, and even Google, the iPhone Duo does not appear to be dramatically superior to the latest book-style foldables; it matches the latest Pixel Folds’ IP68 water and dust resistance rating (that degrades over time); it relies on a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for authentication over the more convenient Face ID; it only has two cameras, and they lack the upgraded features of the Pro models; and at 254 grams, it’s heavier than practically any other foldable out there today.
What I find more compelling than the hardware is how Apple designed iOS to ostensibly work better with a foldable. Watching the demos, you can immediately see the care that went into the transitions between main and internal displays, and the changes that make the software easier to use with one hand. And while older apps may look funky until they’re updated, Apple has traditionally had better luck than Google convincing (or forcing) developers to adapt their apps to new form factors.
With iOS 27.1, which will be released alongside the iPhone Duo in October, developers will be able to target the foldable in app updates. Apple is banking on the fact that this larger canvas will tempt developers with new ways to earn money, a flywheel that has rewarded the company handsomely over the past 18 years. And hopefully the new attention paid to Apple’s entry will push reluctant developers to consider doing the same for their Android apps — though I’m not holding my breath.
More from 9to5Mac: Hands-on with the foldable iPhone Duo
Apple didn’t just introduce a foldable iPhone yesterday. There was also the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, and the AirPods 5.