There were a lot of things that could have gone wrong with the iPhone Duo. First of all, it wasn’t entirely clear that enough people wanted a foldable iPhone. After all, Samsung, Google, and others have been making foldables for years, and while they’ve improved, the form factor hasn’t exactly been a hit.
Partly, that’s because – as a category – they tend to be a lot more expensive. But there’s also the fact that Android just isn’t very good on larger devices. I say that as someone who has used at least a handful of different Galaxy Fold and Pixel Fold devices over the last five or so years. There are a lot of things to like about foldable phones, but Android is not one of them. Well, more specifically, Android apps are not one of them.
For Apple, that might have been the biggest risk with the Duo – that the company would roll out an entirely new form factor and there could be no apps designed to run well on it. In fact, at first, that was a problem.
Partly, that’s because truly adapting apps to handle the complexity of the Duo requires real work from developers. It isn’t just that you have a different size or form factor, but that the Duo has far more potential interaction modes, all requiring thoughtful consideration.
Well, Apple just gave us the answer, and Google should definitely be paying attention. That’s because, according to Apple, there are already more than 100,000 apps built for the iPhone Duo that are available in the App Store. The company also says there are thousands of additional optimised apps arriving every day. That’s honestly not bad for a device that’s only been available for a few weeks.
“It’s been wonderful to see how quickly developers have embraced iPhone Duo, and we’re grateful for their creativity and innovation,” Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations, said in a statement. Prescott also said Apple has helped thousands of developers optimise their apps at workshops in 19 cities around the world.
Apple made it relatively easy for apps to use its existing frameworks to automatically adapt to the Duo’s larger screen. Developers can also put in the extra work to design interfaces that react to the angle of the hinge, or adjust how controls are displayed when the phone is partially folded.
That’s a big part of Apple’s strength – it has spent years building an ecosystem where developers can create an app once and adapt it to different devices without starting from scratch. The iPhone Duo is a particularly good example of why that’s such a big deal.
For example, Microsoft Word and Outlook both now offer layouts that take advantage of the larger display. Zoom can turn the unfolded Duo into a more useful video conferencing device. I mean, I think the idea of using any of those apps on a small foldable iPhone seems like a nightmare, but I also think it’s very cool that the companies have made it possible. If you have to work that way, it should at least be usable.
Apple also added Apple Pencil support, opening up possibilities for drawing and note-taking apps. My favourite new app, Fineliner, was inspired by the Duo’s foldable form factor. I highly recommend you download it (it’s free) and at least go through the setup process. I promise it’s worth it.
Google, on the other hand, has been working on foldable phones for years. And while Android has plenty of tools for building apps that adapt to different screen sizes, it just doesn’t seem like developers have much of a compelling reason to care.
Apple’s advantage is that it can introduce a new device, give developers the tools they need, and immediately put optimised apps in front of hundreds of millions of existing iPhone users. It’s even identifying those apps with a special Made for iPhone Duo badge in the App Store.
Sure, there are still many popular apps that still haven’t been optimised. And Google has a substantial head start when it comes to foldable software. But that doesn’t change the fact that Apple managed to do – in just a few weeks – something that makes the Duo feel less like an experiment, and more like what people expect from an iPhone.
It turns out that’s a pretty big advantage. Ultimately, no one buys a smartphone because it has a great hinge. They buy them because of the promise of what they can do. Apple just gave all of those users 100,000 reasons to believe that promise is real. – Inc./Tribune News Service
