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. There are known examples of 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 that 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.
The original iPhone was expensive and a new way to engage with a phone. Apple made the transition between engaging with digital content and using the device as a phone feel seamless.
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.
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