Apple said it does not know when it will restock its foldable iPhone Duo, which sold out just over a week after its launch. The company cited "constraints" in sourcing key components and said it was "really hard to predict when supply and demand will be in balance."
The Duo costs nearly $2,000, making it Apple's most expensive smartphone. Chief executive John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook in September, said he was "thrilled" by the early reaction. Chief operating officer Sabih Khan said the company was working to get the phone "into the hands of our customers as quickly as possible."
Apple recently said it would replace handsets affected by an issue that caused a "small number" of screens to crack along the inside fold. Apple's executives did not mention the Duo during its latest earnings call.
In its results for the three months to 26 September, which did not include Duo sales, iPhone revenue rose 17% to $57bn. Mac sales grew 27% to a record $10.7bn. Sales for the iPad and wearable products fell 10% and 7%, respectively. Total revenue rose from $102bn to $114bn, and pre-tax profit increased from $32.8bn to $36.1bn.
Khan said most Apple devices face supply constraints, partly because of difficulty obtaining enough advanced-node microprocessors, most of which Apple sources from TSMC in Taiwan. He said the problem would continue into next year, particularly affecting iPads and Macs.
Ternus said Apple faces "unprecedented" cost increases for memory. He linked the rise to data centre demand driven by AI chatbots and platforms, including those from OpenAI and Anthropic. Apple has raised prices on nearly all its hardware by about 20%.
Sunil Krishnan of Aviva Investors told the BBC that Apple posted "a reasonably solid set of results." Apple's share price fell 1.8% in after-hours trading.