---
title: "Ternus calls rival foldables “cheap and crappy” as iPhone Duo pre-orders open"
description: "In TIME's Best Inventions cover story, Ternus says Apple waited for the right design; iPhone Duo pre-orders open on 16 October."
url: https://mactoreality.com/ternus-calls-rival-foldables-cheap-and-crappy-as-iphone-duo-pre-orders-open
published: 2026-10-16T10:43:14Z
updated: 2026-10-16T10:43:14Z
author: "Mac to Reality Newsdesk"
category: Rumours
tags: ["Business & leadership","iPhone"]
publisher: Mac to Reality
ai_assisted: true
apple_heat_impact: 2
---

# Ternus calls rival foldables “cheap and crappy” as iPhone Duo pre-orders open

*In TIME's Best Inventions cover story, Ternus says Apple waited for the right design; iPhone Duo pre-orders open on 16 October.*

**Key points**

- Apple CEO John Ternus told TIME that early foldables from rivals felt "kind of cheap and crappy".
- TIME named the iPhone Duo a best invention of 2026; Ternus was one of six engineers on a 2011 foldable patent application.
- iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 and pre-orders open at 5 a.m. Pacific Time on 16 October.

Apple CEO John Ternus told [TIME](https://time.com/collection/best-inventions/2026/apple-iphone-duo/) that the first foldables from other companies “felt kind of cheap and crappy”, in a cover interview published on 15 October as iPhone Duo pre-orders open on 16 October.

TIME named the [iPhone Duo](https://mactoreality.com/iphone-duo-launches-october-23-developer-guidance-released) one of its best inventions of 2026 and put Ternus on the cover. The magazine reports that Ternus was one of six engineers behind a 2011 patent application for foldable devices, which looked at the batteries and circuit boards such a phone might need. “It felt clear that we were going to eventually get to a place where OLED displays were going to be flexible,” he said.

Richard Dinh, Apple’s vice-president of product design, told TIME that he once asked Ternus whether to use a top surface similar to rivals’, which he felt was flawed but possibly good enough. Ternus told him he would know when it was right, Dinh said, a push that led to the Duo’s custom-polymer nanotexture surface. That surface sits on a hinge with more than 100 precision parts, and early users have said the crease is barely visible.

Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook as CEO on 1 September, spends several days a week with Apple’s industrial-design and human-interface teams, according to TIME. He also addressed the global memory shortage, calling it “absolutely a crisis” and saying “all options should be on the table”, after senators criticised Apple for testing memory chips from a Chinese supplier. [9to5Mac](https://9to5mac.com/2026/10/15/john-ternus-talks-iphone-duo-cheap-and-crappy-foldables-in-new-interview/) notes that he also acknowledged Apple Intelligence partly relies on Google’s Gemini technology.

The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 in the US. Pre-orders open at 5 a.m. Pacific Time on 16 October (1 p.m. in the UK), according to [MacRumors](https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/15/john-ternus-cheap-and-crappy-foldables/).

## Sources

- [TIME: John Ternus Is Engineering a New Era for Apple](https://time.com/collection/best-inventions/2026/apple-iphone-duo/)
- [9to5Mac: John Ternus talks iPhone Duo, ‘cheap and crappy’ foldables in new interview](https://9to5mac.com/2026/10/15/john-ternus-talks-iphone-duo-cheap-and-crappy-foldables-in-new-interview/)
- [MacRumors: Apple CEO John Ternus on Early Foldables: 'Kind of Cheap and Crappy'](https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/15/john-ternus-cheap-and-crappy-foldables/)

*This report was written by the Mac to Reality newsdesk with AI assistance from the sources listed above, under the editorial policy at https://mactoreality.com/editorial-policy.*