Has Apple’s Foldable iPhone Turned a Phone Launch Into a Brand War? 

Apple had barely finished showing off its new iPhone Duo on Wednesday when Samsung came online with a message:"Let us know when you're done reheating our leftovers."

A second post joked that while Apple had made people wait, Samsung would be "over here, folding 3 ways."

Then Duolingo wandered into the conversation.

Apple had called its first foldable iPhone Duo, the same name as Duolingo's famous green owl mascot. The language-learning app saw the opening and ran with it: "iPhone Duo: $1,999. Duo on your iPhone: free."

Samsung soon tagged Duolingo too, joking, "I'm so sorry, @Duolingo. They copied us too #Solidarity." Duolingo's answer was even more ridiculous: "when an ugly stranger calls you twin."

Motorola had its own reason to join, using the launch to remind people about its Razr foldables. The company posted a teaser showing generations of Razr devices before hinting at what it called its"next move."

By then, Apple's phone launch had become something of a group conversation and thousands of people were happy to argue about all of it.

This fight started long before the foldable

The iPhone and Samsung Galaxy have been competing for people's attention for so long that the argument can start almost anywhere.

Mention cameras and someone will bring up an iPhone. Talk about customisation and a Samsung user will probably have something to say. Get onto battery life, software or price and suddenly two people who weren't planning to buy a phone are defending the one already in their pockets.

Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007 and built much of its appeal around iOS and the wider Apple ecosystem. The phone works closely with products such as the Mac, Apple Watch and AirPods, giving users reasons to stay within the same family of devices.

Samsung took a different route with its Galaxy phones. Android gave the company room to experiment, and Samsung used that freedom to push bigger displays, styluses, split-screen features, multiple cameras and, eventually, folding screens.

Samsung has the head start. Apple has the crowd.

Samsung launched its first Galaxy Fold in 2019 and has since gone through eight generations of foldables. Apple's iPhone Duo starts at $1,999, seven years after Samsung's first attempt.

Samsung had plenty of material for its jokes as the company has spent years trying to persuade people that a phone that opens into a larger screen is useful. Apple is now asking its own enormous iPhone audience to consider the same idea.

Apple is entering a foldable market that Samsung, Motorola, Huawei and others have already spent years developing, even as people online argue over who actually copied whom.

Its version is still getting attention because it is an iPhone, with the software and ecosystem that existing Apple customers already know.

The Duo opens to a 7.6-inch display, and Apple hasbuilt foldable-specific features into iOS 27. Those features matter less for the novelty of a folding screen than for the people who already know how an iPhone works and may now be willing to try a different shape of one.

Then the phones became personalities

The replies under Samsung's posts showed how little of this argument is really about specifications.

Some people loved the trolling, while some others thought Samsung was taking the rivalry too far. One public response told the company to stop mocking Apple and focus on its own products.

There were also plenty of people ready to remind everyone that Samsung had been making foldables for years.

The Duolingo exchange had a different kind of energy because Duolingo didn't need to take a side in the Samsung-Apple fight. Apple had simply handed the brand a very convenient joke.

A $1,999 phone called Duo gave Duolingo an almost ridiculously easy way to promote its own Duo without buying into the phone argument. Samsung's reply pulled the app into the rivalry for a moment, but Duolingo's "ugly stranger" response kept the joke on its own terms.

Motorola had a different angle. Its Razr gave the company a ready-made reminder that foldable phones didn't begin with Apple.

The phones were still the subject, but the brands were now selling themselves through the conversation around them.

Now take the phone out of the argument

Eventually, the jokes have to give way to the person holding the money.

At $1,999, the iPhone Duo is expensive enough that most people won't buy it simply because Apple has finally made a foldable, but have to decide if it’s worth paying for.

Samsung can keep reminding Apple that it arrived late while Apple can keep reminding everyone why people wait for its products in the first place.

And the rest of us can keep arguing about it online.

So, after the trolling, the price arguments and the fight over who got there first, are you iPhone or Samsung?