Apple's foldable iPhone hits stores with US$2,000 price tag and scarce supply

JUST IN: Apple's first foldable iPhone hits stores with a $2,000 price tag and scarce supply, as queues form outside stores in Sydney, New York and Austin.

Two thousand dollars, and people queued overnight to hand it over.

Apple's first foldable iPhone went on sale today, and the lines wrapped around blocks in Sydney, New York and Austin. Look at the crowd at the Fifth Avenue store, that's not a Tuesday morning, that's an event.

Apple showed the thing off at launch, and you can see the fold demo here. It opens into something closer to a tablet, it snaps shut into a phone, and it costs about as much as a decent used car payment plan. The real story though is supply. It's scarce, which means Apple either can't make enough of them, or doesn't want to. Either way, scarcity plus a queue is the oldest trick in retail, and it still works beautifully.

Tim Cook has spent years watching Samsung own the folding market. Today he finally showed up, two grand in hand, asking who's willing to pay.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.