Apple almost never gives a new iPhone this much floor space before it's even for sale. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports the company is planning more than 150 demo units for its Fifth Avenue flagship alone, nearly 100 at the Apple Park Visitor Center, and 30 to 40 at stores on Michigan Avenue, the Grove and Manhattan's Upper West Side. Smaller stores get about 20. Some of those units sit along the sides of stores without security cables attached to them, so shoppers can fold, unfold and try StandBy mode by hand.
Apple also designed a new MagSafe stand that holds an unfolded Duo next to two regular iPhones, plus a fixture that shows the hinge opening and closing on repeat. That's a lot of hand-holding for a phone that starts at $1,999, with pre-orders opening October 16. Gurman warns that supply may still be tight at launch, even though Apple has built up enough inventory to hit the October 23 date.