Apple CEO John Ternus calls early foldables ‘cheap and crappy’ as iPhone Duo pre-orders near in the UAE

Apple CEO John Ternus says earlier foldables from other companies felt “cheap and crappy”, which is why Apple took so long to ship one. In a new interview with TIME, which put him on the cover of its Best Inventions of 2026 issue, Ternus describes the iPhone Duo as the product of a patient, design-first approach. As 9to5Mac reports, the iPhone Duo is one of TIME’s picks this year. For UAE readers, the timing is useful: pre-orders open tomorrow.

Apple’s interest in foldables predates the rivals he criticises. 9to5Mac says Ternus and five other engineers filed a patent application in 2011 for foldable electronic devices, covering the batteries and circuit boards such a product might need. Ternus told TIME the direction felt clear even then, because he expected OLED displays to become flexible. That explains why the Duo arrives nearly a decade after other foldables, yet isn’t a late start from scratch.

The delay came down to the display surface. According to 9to5Mac’s summary of the TIME piece, Richard Dinh, Apple’s VP of Product Design, once asked Ternus whether the team should use a top layer similar to competitors’, which he felt had flaws but might be good enough.

Ternus told him he’d know when it was right, which Dinh says gave the team confidence to push on manufacturing and bring suppliers together. The result is a nanotexture surface made from a custom polymer, sitting on a hinge with more than 100 tiny interior components. TIME reports that early users say they can barely detect a crease. Apple has also asked owners to hold it to account on crease durability, so long-term results will matter more than first impressions.

The interview also covers Ternus’s priorities as CEO. TIME says he spends much of his time in the studio with the industrial-design and human-interface teams, which echoes earlier Bloomberg reporting. On AI, he said Apple doesn’t need to build every component itself and focuses on areas where it can differentiate, a response to Apple Intelligence’s use of Gemini technology. He also said Siri AI can draw on the information stored on a person’s phone, and that he slept little before the September event.

What UAE buyers need to know

Pre-orders for iPhone Duo open at 4pm on Friday 16 October, with sales, deliveries and in-store availability from Friday 23 October. Prices start at AED 8,499 for 256GB, then AED 9,349 for 512GB, AED 11,049 for 1TB, and AED 13,599 for 2TB. The phone comes in Night Sky and Star White. Because the Duo needs a day-one iOS 27.1 update at setup, we recommend connecting to Wi-Fi before you unbox it.