Samsung had been waiting seven years for this moment. Duolingo somehow got dragged into it. And Apple? Apple may have just given the entire foldable-phone category its biggest marketing campaign yet.

Apple unveiled the iPhone Duo on September 9, finally bringing the iPhone into the foldable era. It is a very Apple take on the category: a 5.4-inch phone when closed, a 7.6-inch display when opened, titanium construction, A20 Pro, Apple Pencil support and an iOS 27 interface specifically redesigned around having two screen sizes. It starts at $1,999 globally and AED 8,499 in the UAE.

It was also possibly the easiest marketing opportunity Samsung has been handed in years.

Samsung has been selling folding phones since the original Galaxy Fold arrived in 2019. So when its biggest smartphone rival finally joined the party seven years later, Samsung didn’t exactly sit quietly in the corner and politely clap.

It opened the group chat.

Samsung had been preparing for this moment

Samsung’s response actually started before Apple announced the iPhone Duo.

The company launched a global “Welcome to Foldables” outdoor campaign across major locations including Seoul, Tokyo and London — a fairly obvious reminder that Samsung has been making folding phones since the original Galaxy Fold arrived in 2019.

The message was simple: welcome, Apple. We’ve been here for a while.

Then Samsung Mobile US logged in

Once Apple’s event started, Samsung Mobile US went straight into live-commentary mode.

“So far, so same.”

Then, while waiting for Apple’s foldable:

“Making us wait? Fine. We’ll be over here, folding 3 ways.”

And once the iPhone Duo finally appeared, Samsung delivered its best line:

“Let us know when you’re done reheating our leftovers 😉”

Cheeky? Absolutely. But after eight generations of Galaxy foldables, Samsung had been waiting years for the opportunity.

Samsung Canada joined the fun

Samsung Canada kept things simpler, posting the Galaxy Fold8 alongside:

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

By this point, Apple’s launch had accidentally become a pretty effective Samsung marketing campaign too.

And Samsung Gulf?

Samsung Gulf asks: first generation or eighth?

Samsung Gulf joined the conversation with its own timely campaign: “First-Generation or Eighth? Why Wait to Experience a Foldable.”

The message is simple: while new players enter the foldable market, Samsung already has eight generations of experience, with the Galaxy Z Fold8, Fold8 Ultra and Flip8 available across the region.

Samsung points to years of refinement in hinges, durability, software and foldable-optimised apps — essentially asking consumers whether they want to start at generation one or generation eight.

The timing alongside Apple’s iPhone Duo launch is hard to miss. But Apple’s arrival is also good news for the category: Samsung brings years of foldable experience, while Apple finally gives loyal iPhone users a way to fold without leaving the Apple ecosystem.

Game on.

Somehow, Duolingo entered the chat

Of course, Apple called its phone the Duo.

There was absolutely no chance the internet was going to leave that alone.

Duolingo — whose green owl mascot is literally named Duo — jumped on the announcement, joking about Apple naming a folding phone after it.

Samsung then tagged Duolingo with:

“I’m so sorry, @Duolingo. They copied us too #Solidarity”

Duolingo’s response?

It effectively told Samsung not to get too comfortable with the comparison, replying with the viral “ugly stranger calls you twin” meme.

For a few glorious minutes, Apple’s $1,999 foldable smartphone had somehow caused Samsung and a green language-learning owl to start arguing with each other.

Marketing in 2026, everybody.

But here’s the thing: Samsung’s jokes don’t make the Duo pointless

It would be very easy to end the story here with Samsung did it first, therefore Apple copied Samsung.

Except technology doesn’t really work that way.

Samsung absolutely deserves credit for helping turn foldables from fragile experiments into genuinely usable everyday phones. The original Galaxy Fold had a famously difficult start, including screen problems that forced Samsung to delay its release. Instead of abandoning the idea, Samsung kept going. Eight generations later, it has earned the right to remind everyone that it was early.

But Apple arriving later doesn’t automatically mean Apple has nothing new to contribute.

Apple has a long history of entering existing product categories after other companies and concentrating on integration and usability rather than being first. Analysts quoted by Reuters made essentially that point: Apple’s strength is often in choosing when a category is mature enough to enter, rather than rushing to be the company that creates it.

And there are some genuinely interesting ideas in the Duo.

Apple designed the inner and outer displays around the same aspect ratio so apps transition proportionally between them. iOS 27 has been specifically adapted for the folding display, including new multitasking behaviour, while the larger screen supports Apple Pencil. Apple has also gone after one of the persistent criticisms of foldables with a nano-texture display treatment designed to make the crease less distracting.

More importantly, Apple brings something Samsung can’t: the iPhone ecosystem.

There are millions of people who may have looked at Galaxy Fold devices for years and thought they looked fantastic but simply weren’t willing to leave iOS, their Apple Watch, AirPods, iCloud, apps and everything else connected to their iPhone.

Those people now have a foldable.

That’s a big deal.

In fact, Samsung might ultimately benefit from the iPhone Duo

This is where the rivalry gets slightly ironic.

Samsung has spent seven years trying to convince people that folding phones shouldn’t be a niche.

Apple may now help convince them.

Foldables still represent only a small percentage of the overall smartphone market, but analysts expect Apple’s arrival to accelerate adoption. Counterpoint expects Apple to quickly become a major player in the segment, while Samsung remains a formidable competitor thanks to its experience, scale and global distribution.

That means someone who sees an iPhone Duo advertisement might suddenly start considering foldables for the first time — and then discover the Galaxy Z Fold8 sitting next to it.

Apple potentially expands the audience.

Samsung gets another opportunity to sell to that audience.

And consumers get two enormous companies trying very hard to outdo each other.

Everybody wins.

Well, except perhaps the social-media managers who now have to keep topping “reheating our leftovers.”

The foldable war just became interesting

Samsung won the meme battle surrounding Apple’s announcement. That much is difficult to argue.

Its combination of global Welcome to Foldables advertising and perfectly timed social posts turned Apple’s biggest hardware announcement into free attention for Galaxy.

But Apple may have achieved something considerably bigger.

Until this week, buying a foldable meant choosing Android. Now the world’s two biggest premium smartphone ecosystems are competing in the category, and Apple entering the market validates much of what Samsung has spent seven years building.

So yes, Samsung can tease Apple for arriving late.

It earned that joke.

But Apple also deserves some credit for waiting until it believed it could make a foldable that behaved like an iPhone rather than simply making an iPhone that happened to fold.

And if the Duo succeeds, the real story won’t be that Apple copied Samsung.

It’ll be that Samsung helped build the foldable category — and Apple helped make sure everyone started paying attention to it.

Now things get fun.