Apple’s 100,000 Duo Apps Include Office and Netflix, Not PayPal or Delta Yet
MacRumors confirms the figure counts apps built with the iOS 27.1 SDK or later, so the real test is whether the apps you open daily are on that list.
Apple said on Friday that more than 100,000 apps built for its iPhone Duo are live on the App Store, two weeks after the $1,999 foldable launched.
As MacRumors notes, Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations, said thousands more arrive each day.
The number is large, but it counts apps in general, not the ones on any one person’s home screen, as it covers only apps built with the iOS 27.1 SDK or later.
Apple’s Count Measures an SDK Version, Not a Design Review
Early reports of display hiccups already put hardware durability under the spotlight, yet solving the physical layout is only half the battle.
Making software span across two screens requires an advanced approach, and the SDK 27.1 solves this display challenge, MacRumors reports.
It ensures the apps can stretch across both screens while shifting controls into a vertical bar by the status bar.
Standard SwiftUI and UIKit apps can indeed handle this transition automatically; however, visual differences remain noticeable to the user.
Software built with the iOS 27 SDK fills most of the inner screen with an empty right-hand status edge, whereas older iOS 26-era apps sit centered with black bands on both sides.
Qualifying software receives a “Made for iPhone Duo” App Store badge.
Our reading is that “optimized” describes how an app was built, not how well it works, since MacRumors notes Apple gave no stricter definition.
MacRumors’ Gap List Is Full of Apps People Open Every Day
Apple’s ready list per MacRumors includes:
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- OneNote
- Netflix
- YouTube
- Zoom
- Prime Video
- Etsy
- Goodnotes and several sports apps.
TechCrunch adds ChatGPT, Spotify, Canva, and Strava.
The examples MacRumors gives of apps not yet optimized are different in kind: PayPal, Venmo, Wells Fargo, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Starbucks, UPS and USPS.
Sorting them is our own grouping, and MacRumors calls its list examples, not a full roster.
Even so, the ready apps lean toward media, sports and office work, while the missing ones are money, travel and errands.
There are odd splits too. For instance, Microsoft’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint are ready while Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are not, and YouTube is ready while YouTube Music is not.
Few Duo Owners Exist Yet, Which Gives Developers Breathing Room
The Duo sold out within hours of orders opening, and due to extreme short supply, the ship times have moved into next year. Apple is also unsure and said on its earnings call it is “hard to predict” when the constraints will ease.
That matches the supply problems we covered earlier.
Apple says it ran more than 50 in-person workshops in 19 cities, which TechCrunch says drew over 2,000 developers, while Prescott puts attendance in the thousands.
As thousands of optimized apps are being added each day, the gap list should shrink.
Our reading is that the 100,000 is a supply-side count while the buyers are still few, which lowers the pressure on banks and airlines.
Nobody has given a timeline for any app on the gap list. For now, the practical test is the badge in the listing, or the Updates menu Apple pointed users to when it announced the label.
Source: Apple Says More Than 100,000 Apps Optimized for iPhone Duo
