Apple Duo could change the way people interact with mobile devices and shop online making, mobile commerce more interesting.
Not because the screen folds open, Samsung has been doing that for years. It’s more about how seamlessly Apple appears to have connected the "folded" and "opened" experience.
There are documented examples of poor experience continuity on Samsung fold phones such as apps restarting and pages refreshing when moving from folded to open.
Google’s own foldable design guidance reinforces this, stating that users expect their state to be preserved when folding or unfolding a device, and describes losing position or state as a bad user experience.
Imagine a scenario where a person is searching for a product or service on the Duo (while folded), something catches his/her attention, and they open the phone. The journey does not restart, it seamlessly expands, presenting more content for deeper engagement.
For any business who has a high concentration of mobile traffic, this becomes interesting.
And this is where Apple could have an advantage. It has a long history of taking technology that already exists and making the interaction between hardware and software intuitive enough to change human behaviour.
For example, the original iPhone was expensive and introduced a new way to engage with a phone. But because Apple made the transition between engaging with digital content and making/receiving a call seamless, it became this device-centric game changer.
The Duo could do something similar.
Apple’s other advantage is in its control of the app ecosystem. If seamless transition between folded and opened states becomes part of Apple’s experience requirements, apps that do not meet that standard could be left behind.
If the Duo introduces an elegant transition from small screen scanning to larger screen engagement capabilities, this could be the start of new consumer behaviours.
Let’s not forget, Apple created a need for a tablet when people never knew they needed one.
Will the same thing happen with the Duo? If the answer is “possibly”, then Apple has just made mobile commerce considerably more interesting.
What does this mean for Retailers?
The Duo translates to opportunity in a few ways for retailers who have a high concentration of mobile traffic...
The "Folded to Open" Opportunity:
There can be this "multi device" experience that occurs within a single session.
In other words, the consumer can start engaging with a retailer in the "folded" version of the site, but if engagement is strong and the consumer finds something of interest, it could stimulate a deeper level of engagement with the consumer opening the Duo.
Say "Goodbye" to Desktop:
The Duo could be the first step to removing the need for desktop screens and laptops.
Time in the office continues to reduce and with technology and apps advancing, the need for beefy laptops to run personal workstations diminish.
Content Remains "King":
Content has always been crucial, and with the onset of Agentic commerce and the influence of LLMs (such as ChatGPT) content will continue to play a crucial role.
But in this context, to give retail content another chance to merchandise products is exciting for retailers where pictures and videos really do sell their products.
Rapid/Dynamic Page Layouts:
There will be a need for websites to pay close attention to how existing apge layouts will respond to a "folded" to "opened" consumer behavour scenario.
Three potentially very common journey scenarios...
Product Listing Pages:
Imagine a consumer is on a product listing page, has selected a filter (such as colour) and decides in the middle of scanning this page that they want to open the screen to improve their own scanning journey.
The product listing page layout must dynamically reconstruct the content presentation while holding its place in the "scroll", honoring the filter selection, and give the consumer the context they need to feel comfortable they have not moved in the listin gof the products.
Product Detail Pages:
Another common scenario is a consumer landing on a product detail page and moving from folded to opened to engage with the merchandising content.
Checkout Journeys:
Consumers could easily find a product they like in the "folded" screen but open the screen to complete the checkout. This also breathes new life into the multi step checkout journeys that have been proven by research to be far superior in simplifying journeys.
But this gives retailers another reason to challenge their existing checkout journey and make it easier to engage with on larger screen surfaces.
Is The Duo Going to be Popular?
It's too early to tell. But Apple's history suggest it will be.
Apple are the kings of being great at being second. They have watched and learned how other brands and tech operators have introduced new consumer products.
- They assess the market response.
- They identifeid the mistakes that were made.
- And then they set out to make it signifcantly better.
They have done this with the iPhone, laptops, the iPod, Airpods and now it looks like they are going to do the same with the folded phone.
The Duo could have more of an impact on online retail than AI.
So what are you waiting for, get ready for what is sure to come.
About Greg Randall
Greg Randall is an eCommerce consultant and the founder of Comma Consulting. He has spent more than 25 years working with retailers and B2B's, helping them understand what is getting in the way of better digital performance.
His work combines eCommerce strategy, customer experience design, data and commercial pattern recognition to identify the issues that matter and what businesses should do about them.
This article was as tagged as Digital Strategy , eCommerce Consulting , UX Design