The iPhone Duo amid the screen cracking controversy

Seven years after the commercialization of foldable smartphones, Apple, the last major mainstream mobile phone manufacturer to enter the track, has become the biggest variable that shakes the global market share this year.

TrendForce estimates that global foldable smartphone shipments will only see a slight 0.5% increase in 2026, while the shipment of Apple's first foldable smartphone iPhone Duo is expected to reach about 5 million units in its first year on the market, accounting for approximately 24.8% of the global market share, accelerating the change of brand market share.

At present, the supply and demand of this mobile phone, which has been officially released for less than a week, is still very tight. On October 28, a CLS reporter visited the offline Apple store at Shenzhen Yitian Holiday Plaza and learned that there is still no spot of iPhone Duo in the store, and the online reservation is expected to be available for pickup by the end of January 2027.

(iPhone Duo Source: Photographed by CLS reporter)

A person from a core Apple supply chain enterprise revealed to the CLS reporter that due to the strong demand for iPhone Duo, the customer has added more than 2 million units to the order, and the company is now making every effort to push forward production.

As the iPhone Duo officially enters the market, this foldable phone with a starting price of 15,999 yuan for the China version has also ushered in the quality control inspection of real devices. Recently, successive first batch of users on social platforms at home and abroad reported that after opening and closing the new phone several times, problems such as tight hinges, cracks on the inner screen along the crease, or abnormal display appeared. On October 27, Apple officially responded that it has noticed that the inner screen of a very small number of iPhone Duo devices has problems, and advised users encountering display issues to contact AppleCare for device replacement services.

The aforementioned store staff told the reporter that the store has not yet encountered any cases of returning or exchanging devices due to inner screen cracks, nor has received any product recall notice. If the device indeed has non-human-caused inherent quality problems, the store can assist with return and exchange procedures.

No matter whether the failure is occasional or not, the iPhone Duo has already been at the center of public opinion. So where exactly is the crux of this inner screen crack controversy, will the orders of related enterprises be affected, and what other shortcomings does this first-generation foldable phone that arrived seven years late need to make up for?

The cause of inner screen cracks points to the hinge

From the feedback of the first batch of affected users, the inner screen damage of this iPhone Duo is not randomly distributed, and most of the damaged positions are concentrated in the central area of the screen crease. The official cause of the screen damage has not been confirmed yet, but interviewed industry insiders have provided several possible directions to CLS reporters.

Many people from display panel manufacturers tend to believe that the crux of the problem lies in the hinge link, and the regular damage of the inner screen is highly related to the support of the hinge structure and the assembly coordination of the whole device.

A person from the panel industry analyzed to CLS reporters that from a technical point of view, the occurrence of such problems may be related to insufficient strength in specific areas of the product's hinge. Therefore, applying force in this area can easily reproduce damage at the same position; in addition, if there are defects in the hinge design or lax tolerance management of parts, spatial interference will occur between the screen, the hinge and the back cover, which will further lead to screen cracks.

Repair agency iFixit released a report on October 25 showing that in the pressure test simulation of iPhone Duo, when the screen is folded, if the support rod at the center of the hinge cannot be completely moved away, forming a stress concentration point right in the center of the screen, this may be the cause of screen cracking.

The design of the hinge is crucial for foldable smartphones, so the hinge is also one of the links with the highest value in foldable devices.

Zhou Shibo, an analyst at TrendForce, told CLS reporters that the water-drop-shaped hinge undertakes the most critical dynamic control in foldable devices. It supports the screen when unfolded to maintain flatness and touch support, and makes space when closed for the panel to be stored according to the designed curvature. If the central support does not give way enough, additional contact and stress concentration will be formed locally.

In addition, accidentally tearing off the protective film is also considered a possible contributor to the lifespan problem of the inner screen.

Recently, many bloggers on the Internet have conducted "film tearing" tests on iPhone Duo. For example, digital repair blogger "YCS Yang Changshun Repair Home" said when disassembling the iPhone Duo that the matte layer on the inner screen of the iPhone Duo can be directly torn off by hand. After tearing it off, the original matte inner screen becomes an ordinary bright screen, and the crease at the folding position becomes more obvious under reflected light.

But in fact, this matte film is far more than just achieving "diffuse reflection" for the screen.

A senior panel analyst told CLS reporters that this original factory film on foldable devices must not be torn off. Once torn off, it will easily lead to screen cracking. Even if you stick an ordinary film later, it cannot provide the protective effect of the original factory film.

The aforementioned Apple store staff told CLS reporters that this film on the iPhone Duo is part of the surface layer of the screen. If the user forcibly tears it off, the official warranty will be directly voided, and replacing this film alone costs 400 yuan (the out-of-warranty estimated service fee for "surface damage" announced on Apple's official website in China is 398 yuan).

In a foldable smartphone, every layer of the screen is "interconnected". Qi Enze (Enze Qi), senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, explained to CLS reporters that for foldable screens, multi-layer materials need to be able to bend together and return to their original state together. A flexible screen is composed of a protective layer, UTG, optical adhesive, display and packaging layer, support layer and other components. When folded, the outer side is under tension and the inner side is under pressure, and each layer requires different arc lengths. The optical adhesive must allow moderate interlayer displacement while sticking firmly; after being closed for a long time, it must also rebound quickly, so engineers need to adjust the thickness of each layer and the adhesive materials.

This is not the first time that "film tearing" has affected the lifespan of the inner screen of foldable devices. "In response to consumers accidentally tearing off the protective layer, Samsung's rectification method back then was to extend the protective layer into the frame," said Qi Enze.

Zhou Shibo told CLS reporters that Apple has now provided device replacement for a small number of devices with abnormal inner screens. From the perspective of engineering improvement, the subsequent core focus will fall on the coordinated control of hinge stroke, support height, lamination accuracy and assembly tolerance.

Apple supply chain "order increase"

The inner screen crack controversy exposed in the first week of sale coincided with the cooling of the secondary channel market after the first batch of supplies were delivered.

Compared with the price markup of tens of thousands of yuan before the sale, the current second-hand recycling price of iPhone Duo has basically fallen back to the normal level of new Apple devices. A CLS reporter consulted a mobile phone recycler on October 27 and learned that at present, except for the brand-new unactivated white 1TB iPhone Duo which can be recycled with a markup of about 2000 yuan, the markup for recycling other models is within 300 yuan.

Affected by this, the market began to worry about whether the terminal demand for iPhone Duo will decline and whether the orders of related industrial chain enterprises will be affected.

On October 28, a staff member from the securities department of Lens Technology (300433.SZ), which supplies structural parts such as UTG and 3D glass cover plates, responded to the CLS reporter who called as an investor that the company's related industries currently have very full production tasks, and are working overtime to produce and deliver goods; the company has fully considered the customer's order demand for this year and next year and made full capacity preparation, which can flexibly respond to subsequent demand growth. The related business will see a significant increment from the third quarter of 2026 to next year, which will be reflected in the performance of the next few quarters.

A staff member from the securities department of Foxconn Industrial Internet (601138.SH), which is responsible for the whole device assembly, told the CLS reporter who called as an investor that the company's current production, operation and order situation are all normal.

Another person from an "Apple supply chain" enterprise revealed to CLS reporters that the company has been pushing forward production, and the customer added orders some time ago. At present, the demand including the first quarter of 2027 is very good. The person confirmed to the reporter that the original shipment target of iPhone Duo this year was only 6 million units, and after this round of order increase, the annual shipment volume has been raised to 8 million to 10 million units.

Why has the premium in the secondary channel fallen rapidly while the upstream supply chain is increasing orders and running at full capacity?

Liz Lee, associate director at Counterpoint Research, analyzed to CLS reporters that the demand for iPhone Duo was strong in the early stage of its launch, but due to limited initial supply, it is still difficult to accurately judge its real demand level; as long as the scope of impact of early quality problems does not further expand, it is expected that there will be no obvious impact on sales.

Liz Lee also mentioned that if related problems persist, it may indeed affect consumer confidence and push up the return rate, but she will not directly attribute the recent drop in premium in the secondary market to quality problems.

In Liz Lee's view, the buyers of Apple's foldable smartphone are most likely mainly from the existing iPhone user group. These current problems will not significantly change the competition pattern of the foldable screen market, nor will they shake Apple's long-term product planning; even if subsequent problems worsen, most of the initial demand is more likely to be postponed to next year rather than shifting to foldable smartphones of competing brands. This part of demand may be affected by supply restrictions, or it may be that consumers choose to wait for the hinge problem to be resolved before purchasing.

Software applications are still "catching up on lessons"

Although the early inner screen crack controversy has not affected supply chain orders, this incident has also made many consumers begin to pay attention to the high out-of-warranty maintenance cost of foldable smartphones and the yet-to-be-improved software adaptation.

Apple's official website in China states that if you do not purchase the two-year AppleCare+ service priced at 2599 yuan, the estimated out-of-warranty maintenance cost for inner screen damage of iPhone Duo is as high as 7998 yuan, which is equivalent to half of the starting price of the China version; in addition, the estimated out-of-warranty maintenance cost for outer screen damage is 3198 yuan, the back glass damage is 1598 yuan, and the battery replacement service fee also reaches 1898 yuan.

Zhou Shibo said that the feedback of screen damage and high maintenance quotes have directed the market focus to product reliability and ownership cost; at the same time, the first wave of user feedback for iPhone Duo is relatively diverse. The split-screen operation and screen viewing experience after unfolding have been recognized, however, the black edge situation of third-party applications (Apps), button configuration and fingerprint unlocking have increased the adaptation cost for users. He believes that for the high-positioned iPhone Duo, the core of consumer evaluation lies in whether the newly added display space can bring a complete experience sufficient to support its selling price.

In terms of software adaptation, the aforementioned Apple store staff told CLS reporters that although mainstream applications such as WeChat have done preliminary adaptation, there will still be a small black edge after unfolding to full screen, which requires waiting for subsequent version updates.

The staff also introduced that according to the terms of Apple's App Store, all applications that have not completed adaptation before April 2027 will not be allowed to go on the shelf, and it is expected that mainstream applications will speed up to complete the adaptation.

Why is the software adaptation of foldable smartphones more complex than that of bar phones? Zhou Shibo told CLS reporters that the iPhone Duo puts a large display space into a portable body, allowing document reading, artificial intelligence (AI) summarization and content editing to be carried out on the same screen.

However, he analyzed that to convert the newly added area into operation efficiency, Apps must dynamically adjust the interface layout as the screen opens and closes, while continuing the reading position, input content and working state; at present, some Apps still have black edges or insufficient space utilization, which shows that software adaptation has not yet fully utilized the advantages of large-screen hardware.

At the same time, the large unfolded screen also raises the requirements for energy consumption management. Zhou Shibo analyzed that lowering the screen refresh rate can save part of the driving power consumption, but each pixel of the OLED screen emits light independently, and power consumption is still affected by brightness, display area and picture content. Even static white-background documents will continue to consume power; therefore, it is necessary to combine high-efficiency luminescent materials, optical structure optimization and adaptive driving to balance large-screen multi-tasking, AI computing and battery life performance.

Zhou Shibo said that Apple's advantage lies in its ability to integrate chips, systems and developer ecosystems; in the future, with the improvement of third-party application adaptation and hardware reliability, the iPhone Duo is expected to continuously expand the application value of foldable screens, driving foldable smartphones to evolve from early appearance and form innovation to product competition centered on multi-task processing efficiency.

This article is from the WeChat official account "CLS", author: Wang Biwei, published with authorization from 36Kr.