iPhone Duo: Apple touts a 100,000-app catalogue
· BehindLines newsroom
Two weeks after the iPhone Duo went on sale, Apple is putting its software ecosystem in the spotlight. In a statement relayed on November 6 by MacRumors and 9to5Mac, Susan Prescott, vice president of developer relations, says more than 100,000 apps built for the device are already available on the App Store.
A catalogue that grows every day
According to Apple, thousands of optimized apps are added daily. MacRumors reports that the count covers apps built with the iOS 27.1 software development kit or later. The listings concerned carry a "Made for iPhone Duo" badge and, according to 9to5Mac, the App Store offers editorial collections dedicated to apps and games for the device.
TechCrunch says more than a dozen newly optimized apps were released alongside the announcement, including Microsoft Word, Outlook, Zoom, Etsy and Goodnotes. Netflix, YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp had already been optimized earlier.
Workshops for developers
Apple says it held more than fifty in-person workshops in 19 cities over the past month. According to 9to5Mac and TechCrunch, more than 2,000 developers attended. MacRumors adds that, according to Apple, apps built on standard SwiftUI and UIKit components adapt automatically, and that new programming interfaces help handle the device's different layouts.
What remains to be done
The figure does not tell the whole story. According to MacRumors, apps built with iOS 26 or an older version appear centred on the inner display, with black bars on each side. The site cites Google Docs, Steam and Venmo as examples not yet optimized, while noting that its list is not exhaustive. TechCrunch, for its part, points out that some updates had not yet rolled out at the time of its tests: Spotify still showed the black side bar on its test device.
One factor remains that the announcement does not solve. According to TechCrunch, the iPhone Duo, which starts at 1,999 dollars for the 256 GB model, sold out within hours and delivery times stretch into next year. Apple considers it "hard to predict" when these supply constraints will ease. For developers, the stakes are therefore twofold: being ready for an audience that is still limited, without knowing when supply will allow that audience to widen.