Reuters says $1,999, El Mundo says €2,339, Observador says nearly €2,400

The launch. Apple showed the iPhone Duo, its first folding phone, on 9 September — the first product under chief executive John Ternus. Reuters puts the starting price at $1,999. HotNews.ro adds the dates: orders from 16 October, delivery from 23 October.

The same phone, four figures.

Who says why. Observador is the only report we hold that says its number is the local one: prices in Portugal, it writes, differ from those revealed at the event. No report says whether sales tax is inside its figure.

Only the maker speaks. Apple supplies the price, the superlatives and the one quote — Ternus on the "largest display ever on an iPhone", in the Sydney Morning Herald. No buyer, rival or carrier is quoted in any of the 20 reports.

Not settled. No report gives a monthly or contract cost, which is how most buyers meet a price this size. Life.ru alone reports the shares down 1.63% at their low during the presentation, citing Nasdaq data; no other report mentions the share price. TASS lists the iPhone 18 Pro in black, silver, glacier and burgundy; Novaya Gazeta Europe lists grey, black, blue and burgundy.

What this is about. Apple has launched its first phone with a folding screen, the iPhone Duo. The outlets that reported it printed different prices for it.

How it got here.

• Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has sold the iPhone since 2007. It launches new models each September.
• Folding phones are not new. Samsung began selling them in 2019, and Chinese makers followed. Apple had not made one until now.
• Tim Cook ran Apple from 2011. Novaya Gazeta Europe reports that he announced his departure at the 9 September event, and that John Ternus presented it as the new chief executive.
• In June, Observador reports, Apple raised the prices of iPads and MacBooks in Portugal by €100 to €400. It blamed the rising cost of memory chips. Observador says iPhones were left out then and are being repriced now: the iPhone 17 went from €989 to €1,139 there.

Why the prices differ. Companies usually announce a single US dollar price on stage. Each country then gets its own price. That price reflects the exchange rate, import costs and local tax. In the European Union the price shown to shoppers must include VAT. In the United States the listed price usually leaves out sales tax, which varies by state. So a dollar figure and a euro figure are not the same measure, and comparing them directly misleads.

Who is involved.

• Apple sets the prices and supplies nearly everything in the coverage.
• Rival makers already sell folding phones. Le Figaro writes that Apple's arrival should grow the market, and that this should help those rivals too.
• Buyers pay the local figure, tax included or not. No report asked any of them.

What is at stake. For buyers, the question is what the phone costs where they live. According to Observador, it costs €2,399 in Portugal for 256 GB and €3,899 for 2 TB. Le Figaro writes that the high price gives Apple an important new source of growth. Whether people will pay it is a forecast, not a fact yet.

Where it stands. According to HotNews.ro and Le Figaro, orders open on 16 October and the phone ships on 23 October.