iPhone Duo Has Sold Out Until January. Here's What to Do If You Missed It

If you sat with the Apple Store app open at one o'clock on Friday, you'll already know how this went. Pre-orders for iPhone Duo opened at 1pm UK time, and within minutes the delivery dates had slipped past launch day and kept on going, until Apple's own store was quoting the end of January. Apple has since told the Financial Times that demand has been "nothing short of extraordinary", which is about as close as Apple ever comes to saying something has sold out.

Where things stand right now

As of this weekend, Apple's UK store shows delivery on Monday 25 January for the iPhone Duo, and that's true at both ends of the range, from the 256GB Star White at £1,999 to the 2TB Night Sky at £3,199, so it isn't a case of one colour or size being the problem. In the US, MacRumors found every model showing the same date on Friday. If you order one today, it won't be here for Christmas. The prices haven't changed and neither has the phone, it's simply a very long queue.

If you got your order in early on Friday, the first deliveries still arrive on Friday 23 October as planned, and the order page in the Apple Store app will show you which date you landed.

For collecting from an Apple Store, the website says to check back on Saturday 24 October, the day after launch, which suggests some stores will have phones to reserve from then. Apple hasn't said how many, so treat that as a chance rather than a promise.

The big retailers are in the same position. John Lewis has sold out of its pre-orders on every model, although its 256GB and 512GB listings say they're available to buy from 20 November and each one has an email alert, which is worth knowing if January feels like a long way off.

Apple's only comment so far is that statement to the Financial Times, which also said it's working hard to get iPhone Duo to customers as quickly as it can. It hasn't said how many it has sold or how many it made, and as Apple stopped sharing sales figures years ago, I wouldn't expect a number.

What's being reported, but isn't confirmed

Demand is only half of the story. Reports going back to the summer suggested Apple was struggling to make the Duo in big numbers. Nikkei Asia reported in early September that production was running at only a few hundred phones a day in late August, there were more reports of manufacturing problems at the end of September, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said earlier this month that Apple had at one point thought sales might have to slip to November. So the queue is probably a mix of a lot of people wanting one and not many phones to go round, but that's the reporting, not Apple.

In the US, MacRumors has heard from Apple Store staff who say they've been told there will probably be no Duo stock for walk-in customers on launch day, and to warn anyone without a pre-order that they're likely to be disappointed. It isn't clear whether the same goes for UK stores, but I wouldn't make a special trip on the 23rd hoping to buy one off the shelf, especially when for most of us in Dorset the nearest Apple Store is Southampton or Exeter.

And then there are the resellers. Within hours of the sell-out, listings on eBay in the US were marked as sold for around $1,800 over Apple's price, including a 2TB model at $5,000 and a 1TB that was only a "confirmed pre-order", meaning whoever bought it was paying for a phone the seller didn't even have yet. I'd expect to see the same on eBay and Facebook Marketplace here, so please don't be tempted. You'd be paying hundreds of pounds over the odds to a stranger, often for a promise rather than a phone, without the 14-day return you get when you buy from Apple, and if the seller disappears, getting your money back is a fight.

If you missed out, here's what I'd do

• Order now anyway, if you're sure you want one. Your place in the queue starts the moment you order, and Apple has sometimes delivered ahead of its estimates when an iPhone was in short supply, so there's a chance January comes forward, although nobody can promise that. You can cancel an Apple order before it's dispatched, so holding a place doesn't commit you.
• Look for store pickup on Saturday 24 October. That's the date Apple gives, and stores get their own allocation separate from online orders, so check that morning and keep checking over the following weeks, because pickup slots tend to appear in small batches without warning.
• Sign up for alerts elsewhere. John Lewis has an email alert on each model and mentions 20 November for the 256GB and 512GB. If a monthly contract suits you anyway, ask your network what delivery date it can offer, because the networks have their own stock too.
• If your current phone is on its last legs, don't wait. The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are on sale now, and my buyer's guide puts them side by side with the Duo, so you can see what you'd be giving up.
• If it was going to be a Christmas present, you can still order it now and put a printout of the order in a card. It isn't quite the same as a box under the tree, but it's a lot better than paying a reseller's mark-up.

If yours is arriving on Friday

Then you were one of the quick ones, and the best thing you can do this week is make sure your current iPhone has a fresh iCloud backup, which you'll find in Settings by tapping your name, then iCloud, then iCloud Backup and Back Up Now. Setup moves everything across directly from your old phone, but a recent backup is your safety net if anything goes wrong, and remember the Duo is eSIM only, so your network moves your number across once it arrives.

If you'd like someone to sit with you while you move everything over, or to show you round that big inner screen once it's set up, that's exactly what a session with iHelp is for. And if you're still weighing up whether the Duo is right for you at all, my explainer from September is the best place to start, and you've got plenty of time to read it.

Alex