Apple's new chief executive, John Ternus, made a surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards and showed off the company's unreleased iPhone Duo on the red carpet.
"Would you like to see it?" Ternus said to a reporter from Deadline, before pulling the foldable phone from the inside pocket of his tuxedo.
The 13-second clip has since gone viral on X, with viewers curious about the device, which does not go on sale until the end of October.
In the footage, Ternus removes the iPhone from his pocket, unfolds it to reveal the inner screen, then folds the £1,999 device back up and slots it inside his jacket.
Fans react to the reveal
One viewer wrote: "Wait, I'm unable to see the screen, is the brightness too low?" Another joked: "Walking around the Emmy's with something new tech that no one has is a major flex. He had to feel like the coolest person in the room."
Several eagle-eyed fans questioned why the screen looked so dark in the clip, with some wondering whether Ternus had turned the brightness down for security reasons. Apple says the effect is actually down to the screen's finish: "A premium nano-texture finish reduces glare and reflections, creating a matte surface that minimises crease visibility and feels great to touch."
Others focused on the absence of a crease down the middle of the open screen, an issue that has affected other foldable smartphones. "Zero crease. Zero," one person wrote, while another added: "You can't even see the crease! Apple did an incredible job."
Some commenters were more taken with Ternus himself. "Not going to lie, Ternus is 007 out there," one fan wrote, while another said: "Going to the Emmys in a tuxedo with a phone nobody else in the world has, insane aura."
What the iPhone Duo offers
The iPhone Duo, priced at £1,999/$1,999, was announced just days before the Emmys. It shares the same squat, book-like shape as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, opening to a screen that is wider than it is tall.
Both the inner and outer displays use the same 1.4 aspect ratio, so apps do not distort or leave dead space when switching between views. The outer display measures 5.4 inches, while the inner screen extends to 7.6 inches.
The phone can be used in any orientation, including propped half-open to watch video hands-free or held partly folded like a book. Its new A20 Pro chipset allows multitasking, with different apps able to run on either side of the screen.
Apple says the device will support the Apple Pencil, making it the first iPhone to do so. On the back, the iPhone Duo carries the same 48-megapixel camera found on the iPhone 18 Pro.
A new era at Apple
Ternus's Emmys appearance comes two weeks after he formally took over as chief executive on 1 September, ending Tim Cook's 15-year tenure in the role. Cook, 65, has moved into the position of executive chairman.
Ternus, 51, previously served as Apple's hardware chief and is widely respected within the company for that work. Apple, founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976, unveiled the original iPhone in 2007 under Jobs, who died in 2011.
