People started camping outside Apple's Lincoln Road store in Miami Beach as early as Wednesday morning, hoping to get their hands on the company's first foldable iPhone before it even hits shelves. By Thursday, rain was falling on Lincoln Road, but the line held, with families bringing lawn chairs, kids and even dogs to wait it out ahead of the iPhone Duo's scheduled 7 a.m. Friday release.
The scene outside the Miami Beach store was captured by WSVN 7News cameras, which showed shoppers bundled up and waiting despite the wet weather. Among them was Joseph Wiener, who said he had been outside since 1 p.m. Wednesday, while the friends who invited him had been camped out since 10 a.m. that same day. “I've been here since 1 p.m. [Wednesday]. My friends that invited me, they've been here since 10 a.m.,” Wiener said, according to the station's report.
Wiener told the outlet he and his friends hadn't anticipated just how intense the tech-launch camping scene would be, calling the iPhone Duo “the most popular thing right now” for 2026. He also noted the novelty of Apple's approach, pointing out that while flip phones have been around for years, an open-screen foldable design is new territory for the company.
What Makes the iPhone Duo Different
The iPhone Duo is Apple's first foldable iPhone, folding down to roughly the size of a passport, per the same account from Lincoln Road. Unfolded, it becomes the largest iPhone display Apple has ever produced, according to the station's reporting. Apple's own newsroom describes the device as delivering the company's “largest iPhone display ever in a foldable design,” with a Apple Newsroom post noting the screen supports Split View multitasking and seamless app switching between two apps at once.
Specs reported by MacRumors describe a book-style design with a 5.4-inch outer display and a 7.6-inch inner display. Apple lists the device in two colors, star white and night sky, with lease pricing starting at $57.99 a month over a 24-month term before taxes and trade-in credit, per the company's newsroom post. The phone itself costs $1,999 and is set to go on sale at 7 a.m. Friday, Oct. 23, according to the Lincoln Road report.
Online Orders Already Gone, Walk-In Stock Uncertain
Online orders for the iPhone Duo sold out within minutes of launch, with delivery estimates for some buyers pushed all the way to January, the Lincoln Road dispatch noted. MacRumors reported that newly placed pre-orders were getting pushed back to an estimated January 25 delivery within the first 30 minutes of sales opening, though Apple has since started bumping up delivery estimates for some customers in the United States and Japan. Apple also told MacRumors that demand for the device had been “nothing short of extraordinary.”
Apple said it would offer limited numbers of iPhone Duo units for walk-in customers at launch, according to the Lincoln Road report, and people waiting outside the Miami Beach store said that limited in-store supply could mean only one or two phones — or possibly none — make it into customers' hands. MacRumors separately reported that Apple is capping U.S. purchases at a maximum of two iPhone Duos per customer, and that retail employees had reportedly been told there would likely be little to no walk-in stock available on launch day, a conflicting signal from the same outlet about just how bare the shelves might be.
A Global Scramble, and a Resale Frenzy
Miami Beach wasn't the only place drawing a crowd ahead of the launch. According to AppleInsider, hundreds of people lined up at Apple's Galaxy Macau store two full days before the launch, while roughly 30 hours out, only five or six people were waiting at Apple's Fifth Avenue location in New York. Analysts cited by Digital Trends believe the Duo's hinge mechanism is tougher to manufacture at scale than a standard iPhone's slab display, a constraint Apple says it's working hard to overcome.
The scarcity has already fueled a resale market. Forbes reported that some buyers were willing to pay an $1,800 premium over Apple's listed prices, with a 2TB Night Sky model Apple sells for $3,199 reportedly resold on eBay for $4,999.99. A separate listing for a confirmed pre-order of a 1TB Night Sky model sold for $4,400, also roughly $1,800 above its original price, according to MacRumors.
For now, shoppers on Lincoln Road are simply hoping to be among the lucky few who walk away with a device at all. Whether they'll get one remains as uncertain as the rain that fell over their lawn chairs Thursday.
