Gurman: Apple Made a ‘Major Mistake’ Opening iPhone Duo Pre-Orders Early

Apple knew the iPhone Duo would face “severe supply constraints” from manufacturing problems but opened pre-orders on Friday, October 16 anyway, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote in Sunday’s Power On newsletter, as reported by MacRumors. “Let me cut to the chase: Apple made a major mistake here,” he wrote. Gurman said the company appeared to prioritize getting the device on the market early in its fiscal first quarter over satisfying demand, a choice he said “will disappoint many of the early adopters most eager to buy it.”

Gurman also reports that Apple originally planned to launch the Duo in the U.S. and China only and expand to other countries later. Instead, it went wide. Apple’s own September 9 announcement confirmed pre-orders in more than 70 countries and regions, including the U.S., China, Japan, India, the UK and Germany, with availability starting Friday, October 23 and 28 more countries and regions following on October 30. As The Apple Post puts it, that spread a constrained pool of inventory across a much wider launch.

The shortage showed up fast. Within minutes of pre-orders opening at 5 a.m. Pacific, delivery dates slipped from October 23 to November, and by 5:30 a.m. they had reached January 25, MacRumors reported. By that afternoon, Apple’s online store no longer offered delivery in 2026. MacRumors notes Apple has sometimes beaten its ship estimates during past constrained launches, though there is no guarantee.

The warning signs predate the launch. Nikkei Asia reported in early September that production had reached only a few hundred units per day in late August, and China’s Jiemian News reported final assembly yields only slightly above 60% as of September 17, according to MacRumors. Gurman said earlier this month that Apple had at one point believed constraints could push the start of sales to later in November before it assembled enough inventory to ship in October.

That’s Gurman’s read on Apple’s motives, not an Apple statement. Apple hasn’t commented on the timing or said how many units it had when orders opened. It told the Financial Times that demand has been “nothing short of extraordinary” and that it is “working hard to get this revolutionary new product into customers’ hands as quickly as possible.”

First orders arrive Friday, October 23, and whether stores will have walk-in stock that day is still unsettled. Apple’s online store tells shoppers to check back October 24 for pickup availability. The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 and tops out at $3,199 for 2TB.

Sources: MacRumors (citing Bloomberg’s Power On), The Apple Post, Apple Newsroom, MacRumors (citing the Financial Times), MacRumors