TBPN · Oct 28, 2026 · 35m · 28m saved
With Mark Gurman, Managing Editor of Global Consumer Tech & Chief Correspondent on Apple, Bloomberg News
Photo via bloomberg.com
Photo via bloomberg.com
Mark Gurman, Managing Editor of Global Consumer Tech and Chief Correspondent on Apple at Bloomberg News, told TBPN that Apple answered his iPhone Duo story 18 minutes after it went live, having said nothing before it.
Apple describes the cracked screens on its new foldable as affecting "a small number" of buyers. Mark said that at Apple's scale, that phrase can still mean a lot of phones.
"Apple has come out and said a small number of people have had this issue. But for Apple, you know, a small number could be tens of thousands of units."
Mark covers Apple full time for Bloomberg, and he built the Duo story by collecting buyers' own photos, videos and receipts overnight before publishing. He also broke the news, weeks earlier, that Apple had replaced its head of acquisitions.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 35 minutes of audio, 7 minutes of reading.
Here are the 7 insights that matter.
Key Takeaways
Apple's "small number" of cracked iPhone Duos could still be tens of thousands of units
A bar in the hinge can slide under the display and puncture it
Apple replied to the story 18 minutes after it ran, and not before
Apple quietly moved its head of M&A aside and put his deputy in charge
Inside Apple, the running joke is that the M&A team "does nothing"
Software is now the weakest part of Apple, in Mark's view, and its AI arrived late
Casino-style App Store games earn Apple more than the Mac, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek story
Smart glasses are Apple's main new product for next year, against Meta's Ray-Ban line
1. How the Duo Story Broke
Mark joined TBPN's co-hosts, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, on the day of Apple's "Pro and Tell" event, which launched a touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro. The iPhone Duo, Apple's new foldable, had gone on sale earlier that week, and reports of cracked screens had started to circulate.
Mark would not publish on social-media complaints alone, so he asked owners for evidence
"I saw this and I immediately started investigating. I can't do a story based off of people just saying that this happened. So what I did is I put a tweet out Sunday night... I wake up Monday morning, my inbox is filled with people sending in pictures, videos, stories, proof of receipts." — Mark Gurman
The receipts let him confirm that the damaged phones were real purchases and not staged.
Apple stayed silent until the Bloomberg story ran, then replied within 18 minutes
"Eighteen minutes after I put my story out, Apple finally responded. They didn't respond until then. I think they know who people listen to when it comes out." — Mark Gurman
