Apple's Foldable iPhone Duo Draws 99,000 Yuan Scalper Listings; OpenAI Pauses $200 Pro Tier

First Financial reported that Xianyu and other secondhand platforms saw many first-day reservation services; one merchant listed 99,000 yuan but had no completed deal. Multiple merchants said the common markup was about 5,000 yuan, with the minimum above 1,000 yuan, and that prices for 1TB and 2TB configurations were still rising. Some reservation deposits were being offered at about 800 yuan and marked non-refundable if the order was canceled. A China Home Appliance Network survey put proxy service fees at 200-1,000 yuan and said iPhone Duo premiums generally exceeded 4,000 yuan, with top configurations quoted higher. Apple's China website lists the 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB versions at 15,999, 17,999, 21,499 and 26,499 yuan. Preorders begin at 8 p.m. on Oct. 16 and sales start Oct. 23. With a common 5,000-yuan markup, first-day entry-level stock could be quoted at about 21,000 yuan.

Samsung Mobile US posted on X during Apple's iPhone Duo launch, saying the event content was 'familiar so far' and adding that Apple should tell Samsung when it finishes reheating Samsung's leftovers. The posts did not name Apple in every sentence, but their timing and context pointed to Apple's first foldable phone. Samsung also joked with Duolingo that 'they copied us too' and said Samsung was already working on a tri-fold product. Samsung launched its first Galaxy Fold in 2019. Luo Yonghao wrote on Weibo on Sept. 10 that designs such as the foldable form, under-display camera, wide aspect ratio, side Dock, inner-outer screen handoff, multi-angle hovering and titanium 3D-printed hinge cover had appeared in similar forms on other foldable products.

OpenAI announced early on Sept. 11 that it had paused new subscriptions and upgrades to ChatGPT Pro 20X, the $200 monthly tier, while existing users were unaffected. Tibo, OpenAI's core product and platform lead and former Codex head, said on social media that the company wanted to protect the experience of existing users and continue providing access to the Astra model. He described the $200 Pro plan as the most system-intensive and said pausing subscriptions was 'the smallest step' to preserve broader access. On Sept. 9 he had warned that demand for Astra was 'unprecedented' and that the team was pulling every available lever; if demand kept growing, it might have to pause new Pro subscriptions. Separately, The Information reported that OpenAI had told some advertising partners ChatGPT would no longer accept ads for image and audio generation products that compete with its own features. The change had not been written into OpenAI's public ad policy page, and a spokesperson declined to comment. Adobe Americas media senior director Doug Wyatt said Adobe had joined a ChatGPT ad pilot earlier this year and had advertised Acrobat Studio and its AI image generator Firefly. The new rule closes the image and voice/audio categories to competitors; video generation ads remain allowed. The adjustment follows OpenAI's release of ChatGPT Images 2.5.

TechCrunch reported that some Claude subscribers had their login sessions hijacked by information-stealing malware, after which attackers used session keys to generate unauthorized Claude Code OAuth tokens and consume account quotas. Anthropic warned affected users, forced logouts and revoked related authorizations. Grant de Swardt, an independent AI consultant in the UK, saw his account keep consuming Claude Max quota while idle. After he closed connections and scheduled tasks, usage still rose from 45% to 55% the next day. Anthropic's investigation found a suspicious third-party service using a stolen session key; the company revoked the session and token, restored the account and refunded unused subscription time. Anthropic said the malware was not spread through Claude, but it did not say when the system first detected the anomaly and could not provide users with itemized usage records. Users who receive similar warnings should log in again, check authorized apps and revoke unknown Claude Code or third-party connections.

In China, Caijing reported that Audi's plan to redivide brand resources was basically set: FAW Audi would handle the globally unified four-ring brand, while SAIC Audi would focus on the China-market AUDI electric vehicle brand without the four rings. Details were still under negotiation. On Sept. 9, Jiemian News quoted a person close to FAW Audi as saying the direction of giving the four-ring brand to FAW Audi was not a problem, and Audi China and FAW's joint venture cooperation division were discussing implementation details. SAIC Volkswagen said Audi China would communicate on the matter; Audi China did not confirm the plan and said it had no more information to disclose. Audi Group CEO Gernot Döllner said in March that the company would continue its two-partner strategy with FAW and SAIC. The reports point to a business division between two brand systems, not an announced merger or termination of either cooperation.

German media n-tv and IT之家 reported that Leica majority shareholder Andreas Kaufmann had decided not to sell control, ending months of talks with HSG. The Kaufmann family holds 55% of Leica, and private equity firm Blackstone holds the remaining 45%. People familiar with the matter said the two sides failed to agree on future strategy and price. HSG had planned to buy both the Kaufmann family and Blackstone stakes to gain majority control. After the talks ended, the existing shareholding structure remained unchanged. Leica and HSG did not announce next steps at the time of the reports.

The roundup said Mistral announced on Sept. 8 that it had completed a 3 billion euro Series D round at a post-money valuation of more than 21 billion euros, led by Samsung Electronics. In other business and product news, 9to5Mac Daily recapped Apple unveiling AirPods 5 with upgraded noise cancellation; price increases for the iPhone 17, iPhone Air and iPhone 17e; hands-on with Siri Modular and a new Apple Watch face in watchOS 27; and Apple confirming the iOS 27 release date. The same day's roundup said Wang Teng, former Xiaomi China market general manager and REDMI brand general manager, launched the sleep-tech brand ISHO and opened beta recruitment for the ISHO App, which will initially support iOS and require an Apple Watch; the company expects its first hardware, a smart sleep ring, in October. Kimi began global recruitment on Sept. 9, including seven 'Wild Card' social recruitment slots with direct founder access, independent compute and options locked at the current valuation. Alipay said it would invest 10 million yuan a year in an 'Agent Emergence Award,' with a 1 million yuan annual grand prize, and upgraded its AI assistant Abao to more than 10,000 services across 12 categories.

Other items in the roundup included a Geekbench listing for the iPhone 18 Pro series with a single-core score of about 4,700; Honor pushing four Android vendors to unify a tap-to-transfer standard; a China Unicom and Meizu 'Little Cube' demo focused on smart calls and device-cloud collaboration; Doubao Work adding local Office editing, browser recording and execution environment switching; OpenAI opening an Agents API beta that can directly call Codex Agent infrastructure; Li Auto's 2026 i6 filing, with self-developed 5C cells made by Sunwoda and CALB; the domestic C909 completing RNP AR airworthiness test flights; Universal Music and ElevenLabs planning a licensed AI music creation platform; Meta launching a personal AI Agent called Muse that can continue tasks after an app is closed; Geely Galaxy TT going on sale with an 800V platform and lidar across the line; the new IM LS6 opening preorders with a full line-control chassis as standard; Amap launching a risk-avoidance guide 1.0 that predicts travel risks from 15 dimensions; and Alipay integrating its tap feature into the Bund Conference's AI conference and shopping assistant. Renren Film and TV's app was removed from app stores again about 10 days after returning; Xiaomi responded to the N90 service vehicle classification by saying private cars only need inspection before registration; and negotiations over renewal terms for Travel Frog: China Journey remained under discussion.

Editor's Summary Apple's foldable iPhone Duo has become a scalping target in China before preorders, with asking prices far above official pricing. OpenAI's temporary pause on its $200 ChatGPT Pro tier and its new limits on competing ads show how model demand and platform competition are reshaping its business. The roundup also covers security issues at Anthropic, Audi's China brand split, Leica sale talks ending, and financing and recruitment moves across AI and consumer tech.