iPhone Duo Preorders Open Tomorrow With T-Mobile Discounts and Ternus Interview

The Verge reported that Apple’s product page for the $1,999 iPhone Duo now lets shoppers choose color, storage capacity, carrier preference and whether to set up a trade-in before preorders open. Customers who enter those details can leave the order in their cart and only need to confirm it when preorders begin, saving time and giving Apple an early signal of how many customers are willing to put down money before the preorder window opens.

Android Authority reported that T-Mobile’s consumer discounts reach up to $1,000 for customers on Experience Beyond or Go5G Next plans, either with an eligible trade-in in any condition or, without a trade-in, when adding a new line and switching from another network. The same up-to-$1,000 discount applies to any iPhone 18 Pro model, while business lines can get up to $1,400 off. T-Mobile is also offering 36-month financing with no down payment at checkout through its EIP Flex 36 option. Preorders begin tomorrow, and deliveries start Oct. 23. AT&T and Xfinity Mobile have also announced iPhone Duo promotions.

TIME named the iPhone Duo to its list of the best inventions of 2026 and featured Ternus on the magazine’s cover. In the interview, Ternus said he was involved in Apple’s early foldable work in 2011, when many people still carried flip phones. He and five other engineers filed a patent application for foldable electronic devices, exploring what kinds of batteries and circuit boards might be needed. “It felt clear that we were going to eventually get to a place where OLED displays were going to be flexible,” Ternus said. He was less impressed by early foldables from other companies in the 2010s, saying, “The other examples in the world felt kind of cheap and crappy.”

Richard Dinh, Apple’s vice president of product design, said in the interview that Ternus encouraged the team to invest more time in the project even as rivals beat Apple to market. Dinh recalled asking Ternus whether the team should proceed with a top surface material similar to competitors’ materials, which Dinh felt had flaws but might be good enough. Ternus replied, “Look, Rich, you’ll know when it’s the right thing,” Dinh said, adding that the response gave the team confidence to push manufacturing boundaries and develop a nanotexture surface. The resulting surface is made from a custom polymer and sits atop a hinge with more than 100 tiny interior precision components; first users have said they can barely detect a crease, according to the interview.

The interview also said Ternus has devoted much of his early tenure as CEO to design, spending multiple days a week in the studio with Apple’s industrial-design and human-interface teams. On AI, Ternus said Apple does not need to make every component of a product, only the parts where it can bring differentiation, and described Siri AI as uniquely able to use the information stored on a user’s phone. He also said he did not sleep much before Apple’s September event, citing adrenaline, caffeine and excitement.