iPhone Duo Orders Slip, but Some Dates Improve
Apple finally folded the iPhone. Your delivery date may need a calendar upgrade.
Apple’s $1,999 iPhone Duo saw delivery estimates stretch into January 2027 within minutes of last Friday’s preorders opening, proving that Apple fans will wait through the holidays for a phone that bends. Its first foldable still technically launches this Friday, Oct. 23—if you can actually find one.
Apple predictably calls demand “nothing short of extraordinary” but hasn’t disclosed preorder totals. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is less generous, calling the rollout a “major mistake”: Apple reportedly scrapped a limited US and China debut to launch in over 70 countries simultaneously despite well-documented supply constraints.
Fortunately, some buyers in Japan and the US now report earlier delivery dates, including a December order magically moved to launch day. Apple hasn’t confirmed these miracles, so your January ETA isn’t necessarily destiny, but don’t hold your breath for a surprise upgrade.
Planning a launch-day store ambush? Don’t. Japan and South Korea temporarily require pickup reservations. US walk-in stock remains unconfirmed, and some stores have explicitly warned customers away. Apple’s instruction to check pickup availability this Saturday, Oct. 24, is an empty promise of actual inventory.
Meanwhile, scammers are having a field day. Hong Kong police received 130 reports of unauthorized preorder purchases totaling about $637,000, criticizing Apple’s convenient failure to activate 3D Secure authentication. Apple says it’s busy reviewing orders and canceling the fraudulent transactions.
Manufactured scarcity makes for great launch theater but proves absolutely nothing about actual sales without real inventory figures. Check your existing order before paying an absurd reseller premium—and remember, Samsung already sells excellent foldables right now if Apple’s walled garden isn’t worth a three-month wait.
Cloud Sovereignty Could Cost European Organisations €115bn by 2035
Migrating to sovereign cloud services and infrastructure could cost European organisations upwards of €115bn between 2027 and 2035, according to a report commissioned by Big Tech lobbying group CCIA Europe and conducted by the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE).
ECIPE’s study calculated the economic costs that would follow from narrow, moderate and broad implementations of the Cloud and AI Development Act (CADA), finding that the economic impact would be €35.6bn under the narrow scenario, €115bn under the medium, and as much as €233bn under the broad.
Article 31 of CADA enables the European Commission to extend sovereignty requirements to private sector entities, with ECIPE’s medium scenario indicating that as many as 25% of private businesses could be affected, obliging them to pay the costs of moving to sovereign cloud environments and replacing software.
- Cost Breakdown: Within the medium scenario, €79.1bn of the €115bn total comes from migration and systems-adjustment costs, while €34bn comes from higher cloud service costs, with ECIPE arguing that sovereign services command a price premium.
- The Other Side: ECIPE acknowledges that its study doesn’t estimate the wider effects of CADA, including potential improvements to European export competitiveness, changes to international investment, or potential retaliation by trading partners.
- Alternative Estimates: In a study published in December 2025, McKinsey estimated that the European economy could generate €480bn in value by 2030 in a scenario where high technological sovereignty is married to high adoption of AI and related technologies.