Apple's new boss bets big on a phone that folds

Apple has a new chief executive, and he's kicked off the job with the biggest iPhone change in nearly 20 years.

John Ternus took over from Tim Cook on 1 September, ending Cook's 15-year run at the top. On Wednesday, Ternus stepped on stage for the first time and showed off a phone that folds shut like a passport.

It's called the iPhone Duo. Closed, it's a normal-sized 5.4-inch phone. Open it up, and you get a 7.6-inch screen, close to a small tablet, Apple's biggest iPhone display ever.

Now sit down for this part. It starts at $1,999, which amounts to over K30,000 at current rates, before shipping, duty or a reseller's markup gets added on top.

Apple is genuinely late to this game. Samsung launched the first folding phone back in 2019. But analysts say the wait may have paid off, giving Apple time to solve the hard problems, a hinge that survives thousands of folds, and a screen crease you barely notice.

Research firm IDC suggests the new version will sale, expecting Apple's entry to actually revive a folding phone market that had been losing steam, and projecting Apple could ship over 10 million foldable iPhones in its first year alone.

Here's what it means for us. Apple doesn't sell directly in Zambia, so whatever price you see in America, expect to pay more here once resellers, shipping and duty get added. This phone probably isn't a purchase for most Zambians.

But it matters anyway, because where the top of the market goes, the rest eventually follows. Chinese brands already sell folding phones for a fraction of this price, and those are the ones far more likely to actually show up in Lusaka's phone shops.