Apple has finally entered the foldable phone era with the iPhone Duo, and the internet responded in the traditional way reserved for major technology launches: by ignoring several years of engineering work for a moment and making jokes about the name.
The biggest winner might be Duolingo. Its famously unhinged green owl mascot is already called Duo, which means Apple has accidentally handed the language-learning company enough social media material to keep its marketing team entertained for weeks.
Duolingo quickly joined the fun, joking about Apple potentially stepping on its branding and panicking about what the iPhone Duo might do to its SEO. The owl then attempted to get Apple CEO John Ternus on the phone, because apparently corporate trademark discussions are now handled by cartoon birds posting publicly on social media.
Samsung Mobile US could not resist joining the conversation either. The company offered Duolingo some tongue-in-cheek “solidarity” before reminding everyone that Samsung has been making foldable smartphones for years.
Fair enough. If there is a foldable phone conversation happening online, Samsung has earned the right to appear in the replies.
The friendly trolling highlights just how established the category has become before Apple’s arrival. Samsung introduced its original Galaxy Fold in 2019, while Google, Motorola, Honor, Oppo and Huawei have all explored different versions of the foldable concept. Apple may be joining an existing party, but the arrival of an iPhone tends to make considerably more people notice which party is happening.
And people certainly noticed.
Some of the jokes focused on the strange sensation of intentionally folding a smartphone after spending nearly two decades treating a bent phone as an expensive emergency. One social media user helpfully reminded everyone that Apple technically cannot prevent owners from folding their existing iPhones in half.
We strongly recommend appreciating that joke without conducting the experiment.
Then there is the $1,999 starting price, which provided another extremely predictable source of entertainment. People immediately began calculating how many consoles, gadgets and other questionable financial decisions could be purchased for the same money. One particularly good suggestion involved buying only the left half of an iPhone Duo and returning for the other side once the bank account recovered.
None of this is particularly hostile to Apple. In fact, it is probably exactly the sort of cultural attention a new product category needs. The iPhone Duo has immediately escaped the technology enthusiast bubble and become something people are joking about, debating and explaining to friends.
Apple spent years letting other manufacturers develop the foldable market before making its move. Now it has arrived with a $1,999 folding iPhone called Duo, Duolingo’s owl is worried about his job, Samsung is in the replies, and everyone else is making memes.
For launch day, that sounds like a pretty successful party.
