Gauging Interest in the iPhone Duo

Max Roberts, after looking at the list of MKBHD’s all-time most popular videos, and noting that his Duo first-look is #3, and a Duo follow-up is already at #36:

Apple enters the category and in a week it blows past every other folding video.

Now, this doesn’t translate to sales and folding phones taking over the entire smartphone market, but it does highlight a few things to me about tech and the viewers of Marques’ channel.

  1. Apple is the most popular brand Marques talks about.
  2. New products and form factors from Apple are the most popular Apple videos.
  3. When the iPhone comes in a new form, watch out.

There’s no need to overthink it. Humans are decidedly visual animals. Our brains evolved to notice and take interest in novelties. “New” will forever be the most powerful word in marketing. If something looks new, it feels new. If something doesn’t look new (like, say, the iPhone 18 Pro), it doesn’t feel new.

The Duo looks totally new.

It doesn’t matter that Samsung and Google and a bunch of Chinese companies have made foldable Android phones for a decade. Almost nobody cares. The Duo is a fucking iPhone. That makes people care.

★ Friday, 18 September 2026