SourcesFilm 17
A Small Number
On YouTube as “Apple Has Entered Its Mediocrity Era (And It’s Working)”
Corrections and updates
None so far.
It Just Works
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Owners’ footage of cracked Duos
The TikTok posts of LifeWTheSmiths and JMR7_SRT, as NBC aired them in “Screens crack on Apple’s new foldable iPhone”
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An owner’s cracked Duo, as aired in “iPhone Duo users report cracked screens days after release”
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“iPhone Duo is available in star white and night sky, and starts at $1,999 (U.S.)”
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“We are aware of an issue impacting the inner display on a small number of iPhone Duo units. If users experience issues with their iPhone Duo display, they should contact AppleCare for a replacement.”
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Transcript of Apple’s call, with Ternus
“It’s a privilege to be with you for the first time as Apple’s CEO.” Ten analysts asked questions: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Evercore, Melius, BofA, JPMorgan, TD Cowen, UBS, Arete and Cleveland Research
The Duo
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Ternus: “The other examples in the world felt kind of cheap and crappy.”
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Out-of-warranty repair, from Apple’s fee list: “Inner display damage: $999”
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“Had my iPhone Duo for about six hours”; “Almost all of the display faults are right along the hinge”; “it’s possible user damage is a factor”
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“Apple agreed to source foldable OLED panels exclusively from Samsung Display for as long as three years”. Apple names no supplier
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Bendgate: iPhone 6 Plus devices “bending while in users’ pockets”
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Apple “initially aimed to ‘wait until November’ to release the iPhone Duo in the U.S. and China only”, then “ultimately launched the device in more than 70 countries on Friday, October 23”
The Touch Mac
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Jobs on touch screens at Apple’s October 2010 event
“after an extended period of time, your arm wants to fall off”
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Ternus to the Wall Street Journal
“And the Mac is totally optimized for indirect input. We haven’t really felt a reason to change that.”
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“starts at $2,899 (U.S.)”, arriving to customers “starting Friday, November 6”
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“We needed to get to a point where adding touch didn’t make the product lesser in any way.”; “there’s times when it’s comfortable and handy to have touch”
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“Many things have changed, whether it’s the display technology, the custom silicon, et cetera.”
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“The company that once asked consumers to ‘Think Different’ is now releasing hardware that’s just like everything else on the market.”; Ternus has “a track record of pushing harebrained hardware schemes like the much reviled Touch Bar and lawsuit inducing butterfly keyboard”
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“The current M5 Pro MacBook Pro starts at $2,499”; the $2,899 model also gets “a slimmer and lighter body”
The Bill
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Microsoft: “Due to recent increases in memory and component costs, Surface is updating pricing”
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“Samsung lifts prices across most of the Galaxy S26 range by $100”
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“Google hikes price of budget Pixel 10a phone to US$599 on memory costs”
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“Apple debuts iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max”, the last Pro at $999
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“Apple Raises Prices on Most Products by 15–25 Percent, but Not iPhones, Watches, or AirPods”
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The buy page the day before the event: iPhone 17 Pro “From $1099”
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“Rapid Contract Price Surge Drives 1Q26 DRAM Industry Up 81% QoQ”
“conventional DRAM, which increased by approximately 93% to 98% QoQ”
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TechInsights’ estimate of parts and manufacturing
About $582 for the 17 Pro, about $726 for the 18 Pro, a rise of $144
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Last year’s cut: iPhone 15 Pro Max from “Up to $630” to “Up to $520”
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The cut, reported on launch day: iPhone 16 Pro Max $720 to $610
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The same cut, reported six days later: “iPhone 16 Pro Max: $720 to $610”
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(iPhone 18 Pro at $1,199 less the $610 credit) minus (iPhone 17 Pro at $1,099 less the $720 credit) is $589 minus $379. The inputs are Apple’s buy pages and the August and September trade-in reports above; the cut is linked here
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“You will not own your device at the end of your lease, unless you pay the purchase fee.”
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The Duo’s lease from $57.99 a month for 24 months; buying at the end costs the list price less the lease payments already made
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“No, You Probably Shouldn’t Lease Your iPhone”
“This is part of an ongoing ‘financialization of the affordability crisis,’ as Whitney Barkley-Denney, a deputy director at the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending, puts it.”; Kyle Wiens: “Apple is using their huge cash advantage to turn us all into renters rather than owners”
The Record Year
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“capping off our best fiscal year ever”; gross margin “including a favorable impact of approximately 1 percentage point from tariff refunds”
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“we saw about a 1 point sequential change in margin, and that was driven entirely by memory impacts. Now we did have some offsets because the gross memory impact was larger than that.”
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“iPhone Duo Deliveries Slip Into 2027 as Apple Cites ‘Extraordinary’ Demand”
“delivery estimates for new orders slipped as far as late January 2027, according to Bloomberg”
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“Apple iPhone Duo Shipping Dates Stretch Into 2027 After Preorder Surge”
What Happened to Apple
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Apple’s cash paid for repurchases, FY2013 to FY2026, adds up to $902.701 billion, about $903 billion
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“Apple unveils groundbreaking new MacBook Pro”: “With the groundbreaking new Touch Bar”
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“Physical function keys — including a wider escape key — replace the Touch Bar”
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“This week, Apple discontinued the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the final model with a Touch Bar.”
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The butterfly mechanism: “The all-new MacBook will begin shipping Friday, April 10”
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“We are aware that a small number of users are having issues with their third-generation butterfly keyboard and for that we are sorry.”
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“US judge grants final approval to Apple’s $50 million ‘butterfly’ keyboard settlement”
The First Crack
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“iPhone Loyalty Rate Climbs to 87% as Switching to Android Slows”
Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, US buyers, March 2026 quarter
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“Justice Department Sues Apple for Monopolizing Smartphone Markets”
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“Apple repeatedly chooses to make its products worse for consumers to prevent competition from emerging”
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“you can return or exchange it with a receipt within 14 days of the date you receive the product from Apple”. 23 October plus 14 days is 6 November, by our count
Interviews and clips quoted
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IPhone Duo owner LifeWTheSmiths, in her TikToks
“I could not get it open. And so, as I finally got it open, I just heard a like a egg crack”; “I’m stuck with this until January”; “they are back ordered”
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Jesse Dalton, iPhone Duo buyer
“Just pulled it out of the box and it was like I didn’t even make it through setup.”
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“the most transformational iPhone since the original”; “meet Apple’s uncompromising standards for quality, performance, design, and durability”; “What we’re seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented.”; “we have been investing in programs like Apple, the Apple upgrade program, which is a great way to help affordability”
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Greg Joswiak, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing
“never been to rush into something with something half-baked”; “How often do you have an iPhone fail?”
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John Ternus at the September event
“Others have created foldables that just feel like two phones awkwardly stuck together.”
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Apple presenter at the September event
“the hinge with over 100 tiny precision components”; “folding display with superior viewing quality that feels premium and flat, resists wear and meets the high standards of iPhone”
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“My best guess, and a very likely guess, is that that hinge element is breaking and causing a piece of metal to stab into the inner display from underneath when the phone is being opened or closed.”
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“Samsung has perfected this design over eight generations and millions of devices a year, so the Duo screen failures are definitely not on Samsung’s shoulders.”; “No, you’re not folding it wrong. Apple built it wrong.”
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“Several Galaxy Folds all broke in the hands of reviewers all around the same time for separate but very related reasons. Mine was one of them.”
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Lance Ulanoff, editor at large, TechRadar
“I honestly was shocked that Apple responded and acknowledged that they had seen a small number of these”
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Mark Gurman, managing editor at Bloomberg, on Power On
“They initially wanted to release this thing in only the US and China at the end of November and they went early.”; “the biggest iPhone hardware issue we’ve seen other than the Bendgate for the iPhone 6 Plus”; “some influencers online are essentially blaming the customer”; “It is real. And anyone telling you that it’s not real and that you shouldn’t believe the media and the reports of this is lying to you.”
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“it was a financial decision, and they didn’t really care enough about the customer here”; “to show a plus sign when they report earnings at the end of January”; “at a time when their services are decelerating at a very strong rate”
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“It was a specific decision that was made for John Ternus to be the one to introduce the iPhone Duo.”
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Patrick McGee, author of “Apple in China”: “The product, the Duo, really is John Ternus’s baby.”
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John Ternus at the MacBook Pro launch: “the very first time we are bringing touch to the Mac”
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“They said they’d never do it. And for years they didn’t do it, but now they’re just kind of slotting it in as an option.”
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The MacBook Pro ad: “It’ll look so real, you’ll want to reach out and touch it.”
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Mark Gurman on Power On, on the touch Mac: “some people think the price is kind of steep”
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Apple presenter at the September event: “iPhone 18 Pro starts at $1,199”
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Mark Gurman on Odd Lots, asked about Apple’s memory explanation in July
“95% of it”; on the Vision Pro rise: “They’re not going to do anything to lose 1% of their margin.”
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“Apple cut what they give you for devices that you trade in”; “no announcement no press release the trading page literally just changed”
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An iPhone Upgrade Program customer
“the iPhone upgrade program will be coming to an end”; “you’re going to be paying full price for the lease and you’ll never have anything to show for it”; “just put an extra $200 in my pocket that Apple was trying to steal from me”
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“both company and products gross margin would be down about one point sequentially, primarily driven by higher memory costs”; “we did reluctantly make the decision to change pricing on a number of our products”; “we returned $28 billion to shareholders”; “We expect gross margin to be between 45% and 46%.”
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Horace Dediu, founder of Asymco, on The Close
“So I do think that they’re taking a hit on margins. They’re able to offset some of that with mix.”
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Mark Gurman, minutes before the call
“influencers online who tried to convince people that it wasn’t a problem”; “I’m sure they’ll get a question about it”; “this was an early batch defect. It was a real issue.”
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Sabih Khan, COO of Apple, answering JPMorgan
“it’s really hard to predict when supply and demand will be in balance”
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Jay Goldberg, Seaport Research Partners, on The Close: “a $2,000 phone and it’s sold out”
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“And the product people get driven out of the decision-making forums, and the companies forget what it means to make great products.”
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Greg Joswiak, retelling Jobs’s return to Apple
“great companies fail because they forget about creating great products”
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“You don’t want another operational person. You don’t want a marketing person. You don’t want another finance person.”
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Dan Ives, Wedbush Securities, on the June price rises: “max 1%, 2% churn”
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Jonathan Kanter, then Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust
“under our system of antitrust laws, good enough is quite simply not enough”