Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, opens for pre-orders on October 16 and goes on sale October 23.
On the eve of pre-orders, Apple COO Sabih Khan visited Foxconn's Zhengzhou Technology Park on October 11 to inspect the foldable display production line and iPhone 18 Pro-related manufacturing processes.
Despite it being a Sunday, the Zhengzhou Foxconn campus was running at full capacity.
The Manufacturing Challenge of Foldable Technology The core challenge of foldable phones lies in the hinge and screen crease control.
Supply Chain Upgrades and Vertical Integration Beyond foldable technology, Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant also showcased its exploration of bringing semiconductor manufacturing processes into final assembly.
Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, opens for pre-orders on October 16 and goes on sale October 23. On the eve of pre-orders, Apple COO Sabih Khan visited Foxconn's Zhengzhou Technology Park on October 11 to inspect the foldable display production line and iPhone 18 Pro-related manufacturing processes. He said the team is scaling up production to Apple's high standards, with lines running at full tilt and staff energized. Foxconn disclosed a micron-level 3D printing process for the foldable hinge and its exploration of bringing semiconductor PVD sputtering into final assembly. Meanwhile, the iPhone 18 Pro lineup faces quality complaints and softening demand, with supply chain sources saying Apple has cut component orders. The iPhone Duo's premium pricing adds further uncertainty to its market prospects.
On the eve of pre-orders for Apple's first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, Apple Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan appeared at Foxconn's Zhengzhou Technology Park in Henan Province to inspect production readiness for the new device. Addressing external concerns about foldable phone production capacity, he made clear that the team is scaling up manufacturing to Apple's consistently high quality standards. On October 11, Sabih Khan — accompanied by Jiang Jiheng, rotating CEO of Foxconn Technology Group and general manager of its business group — toured key manufacturing processes for the iPhone Duo production line, the iPhone 18 Pro rear camera module line, the anodizing workshop for exterior frames, and the SoC chip-level surface sputtering smart manufacturing workshop. Despite it being a Sunday, the Zhengzhou Foxconn campus was running at full capacity. The iPhone 18 Pro lineup had just launched and supply remained tight; meanwhile, the iPhone Duo — Apple's first foldable — is assembled exclusively at Foxconn's Chinese plants under Hon Hai Precision Industry, with pre-orders imminent and inventory pressure self-evident. In an interview after the tour, Sabih Khan said the Zhengzhou campus is arguably the largest iPhone manufacturing facility, and perhaps the largest smartphone factory in the world. He pulled his own iPhone Duo from his pocket and demonstrated the smooth feel of the screen's opening and closing on the spot, calling it one of Apple's most challenging and exciting products to date. "Here, we have very strong manufacturing precision and design capability, achieved through collaboration with suppliers. The entire manufacturing process is so complex, yet what we deliver to users is an especially simple and intuitive experience," Sabih Khan said. The Manufacturing Challenge of Foldable Technology The core challenge of foldable phones lies in the hinge and screen crease control. According to Foxconn, the iPhone Duo's hinge consists of more than 100 micro-components. Parts from different segments of the supply chain must precisely match both sides of the body to ensure smooth opening and closing along with refined exterior quality. To achieve this, Apple and Foxconn teams redesigned the relevant processes and developed customized automated equipment. The production line uses confocal laser scanning to map the microscopic topography of the folding area layer by layer, then employs machine learning algorithms to generate dynamic filling solutions in real time. Finally, micron-level 3D printing technology applies up to 25 layers of customized photosensitive polymer coating to build a flat screen support substrate. Foxconn showed video footage of this process on site, but the production process inside the machines was not publicly disclosed.
When asked about production capacity readiness, Sabih Khan declined to give specific figures, saying only that the team has been advancing manufacturing development for this innovative product and is currently scaling production to Apple's consistently high quality standards. "Everyone has seen what's happening on the production lines. The lines are very busy, everyone is excited, and we want to get the product to customers around the world as quickly as possible," he said. Supply Chain Upgrades and Vertical Integration Beyond foldable technology, Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant also showcased its exploration of bringing semiconductor manufacturing processes into final assembly. By applying Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) sputtering on SoC chip surfaces to replace traditional metal shielding covers, the approach reduces module thickness while improving thermal dissipation. Jiang Jiheng said in an interview that Foxconn is progressively upgrading from its traditional "world factory" positioning to a technology manufacturing platform service provider, with its development anchored in two capabilities: AI-driven manufacturing and supply chain vertical integration. He noted that the SoC sputtering project is the first initiative of Henan Hongchuang Technology Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Foxconn and the state-owned capital platform of the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone. The project began production in July this year and is already applied in the iPhone 18 series. As the project continues to develop, it is expected to form a new industrial scale of 100 billion yuan. The localization clustering effect of Apple's supply chain continues to manifest. YUTO Packaging Technology, a Chinese packaging supplier responsible for iPhone packaging, has set up a plant in Xuchang near Zhengzhou, where each individual packaging box goes through 36 process steps. The intelligent automated optical inspection equipment jointly developed by Apple and YUTO can capture 64 high-definition images in 1.9 seconds for comprehensive quality inspection. Additionally, a water-based coating jointly developed by the two parties has replaced plastic lamination, reducing plastic use by more than 3,000 tons annually. Notably, Sabih Khan did not come to China alone. Apple Executive Chairman Tim Cook was also visiting China during the same period. The dense presence of Apple's top executives in China's supply chain on the eve of iPhone Duo pre-orders serves both as a concentrated inspection of the manufacturing side and, in the eyes of outside observers, as an important signal of building momentum for the new device.
