Apple’s first foldable landed in Australian stores on 23 October. We bought one the same week, put it on a business plan, loaded the apps our managed clients live in, and have been using it as a work phone since. This is the first of our notes, written as of today.
Short version: the hardware is the most useful screen Apple has ever put in a pocket. The software still thinks it is a normal iPhone. Below is the list we are sending to Apple, in the order we would fix it.
What you get, on paper
Apple Pencil works on the inner screen, and App Pairs let you save two apps to open side by side from one icon. For a quoting, invoicing or site-walk phone, that inner display is the whole point: a PDF plan on one half, the job sheet on the other.
Six things Apple should fix for business
These are not nice-to-haves. Each one costs a tap, a swipe or a search that a small business owner does fifty times a day.
- A compose icon in Messages. On the big inner screen the Messages list is a wide column with empty space beside it. Put a new-message icon on the side so starting a text is one tap, not a trip back to the top of the list.
- A real search button. Finding an old message means pulling down and hoping the search bar appears. Give the Duo a dedicated, always-visible search button. On a work phone, search is not a hidden feature.
- Siri, instantly. There is room on this device for Siri to be one press away at all times. Make it instant, so “call the electrician back” or “add this to the job” happens without stopping what you are doing.
- Email that belongs on the big screen. Mail should take advantage of the open display the way it does on iPad: inbox on the left, message on the right, reply without leaving either. Right now it is a phone app stretched wide.
- A macOS-style keyboard. The inner display is wide enough for a proper keyboard. Give us Command (⌘), Function (fn) and the macOS shortcuts we already know: ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘Tab, ⌘Space. Anyone who moves between a Mac and this phone all day will feel the difference immediately.
- More than four icons in the Dock. iPadOS lets you load the Dock up. The Duo opens to an iPad-sized screen and still caps the Dock at four. Lift the limit and let people put their eight daily apps where their thumb already is.
The Duo is not a bigger iPhone. It is a small iPad that makes calls. Apple should let the software admit that.
What this means if you run a business
Three practical notes from the first week:
- eSIM only. There is no SIM tray in the Australian model. Your business mobile plan has to support eSIM, and swapping a phone between staff is a provisioning job, not a card swap. We handle that on our business mobile plans.
- Price. At $3,499 and up it is a laptop-grade purchase. Treat it like one: device management, backup and a case from day one. It is still cheaper than a phone and a tablet for the staff who would otherwise carry both.
- Apps. Most business apps run fine but open as a stretched phone layout on the inner screen. Before you buy a fleet, we test your actual apps on it. That is the part we do for our managed clients before any rollout.
What happens next
We keep testing. We will update this post as iOS updates land, and we will say plainly if Apple fixes any of the six. If you want us to trial the Duo with your team’s apps, or you just want to know whether it is worth it for your business, ask us. Same team, one invoice.
Prices are Apple’s Australian launch prices, inc. GST, as at 31 October 2026. Specifications are from Apple’s published materials. The improvements list is ours, based on day-to-day use; we are not affiliated with Apple.