Apple's foldable: $3,000 and failures right out of the box

Apple's foldable: 3,000 euros and failures right out of the box

A phone that folds and, according to several accounts, breaks before you even get to use it. The launch of Apple's foldable has produced stories of units that failed as soon as they were taken out of the packaging, with a starting price of around 3,000 euros —half a million of Spain's old pesetas— and a screen whose out-of-warranty repair costs around 1,000 euros, according to user comments. The titanium body and flawless finish have not been enough to contain the complaints.

A 3,000-euro price tag that unsettles

The figure is at the heart of the discontent. 3,000 bucks for a phone is the phrase that sums up the general bewilderment at a device meant to be an object of desire and ends up an object of dispute. The conversation soon turned to the question of sanity: if the price was already debatable before the failures became known, afterwards it becomes an unintentional joke.

Some dismiss it outright as a useless deal, while others point to the status-symbol factor: two screens and a revolutionary design that other brands have been selling for at least five years. The pioneer argument falls apart when the neighbor next door already did it first, without it breaking.

The screen that scratches if you look at it

The weak point has been identified: the glass that folds. The protector scratches at the mere sight of it, and to hide the marks a matte finish has been chosen. The hinge, according to the most critical analyses circulating, is poorly designed: dust gets in unchecked and the mechanism can give way after just a couple of forced openings. Once dirt gets in, it no longer closes properly.

The diagnosis extends to all foldables on the market, not just Apple's. The screen is the most delicate part because it uses glass that bends, and replacing it out of warranty costs around 1,000 euros for any brand. The difference is that here you pay triple for the same Achilles' heel.

Warranty, Apple Care and the fine print

The official answer comes down to insurance: 430 euros for Apple Care to cover whatever the three-year statutory warranty does not. The shopping bag costs 25 cents. The contrast between the price of the accessory and that of the insurance sums up the business model.

There is skepticism about the statutory warranty. The law sets three years, but experience says the brand will claim misuse in the event of a broken screen. A user claiming at the two-and-a-half-year mark will face an assessment attributing the failure to handling, not design.

The Note 7 precedent and the ghost of Steve Jobs

The comparison with Samsung's Note 7 hangs over the conversation: a product that was pulled from the market with refunds for every buyer. There are no burning batteries here, but there is a component that fails out of the box. The question is how many units make up that small batch the brand acknowledges.

The perfectionism narrative is also cracking. The new CEO arrived endorsed as a design engineer, the heir to Steve Jobs. The irony is easy: Jobs, despot and tyrant, but a perfectionist, would have set half of Cupertino on fire before letting this ship. Jony Ive, meanwhile, is preparing an AI gadget for 2027.

Stock sold out shortly after launch. Given all this, someone concludes they should have priced it even higher.