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Developers Dream Up Foldable-Specific Apps for Apple's $2,000 iPhone Duo
Apple's first folding phone has prompted developers to build apps designed around its two-panel screen, from retro cassette players and virtual notebooks to flight trackers and a digital toaster.
The iPhone Duo, Apple's entry into the foldable phone market, starts at $2,000 and arrives with a form factor the company has not sold before. Rather than treating the device as a slightly larger handset, software makers are using the fold as a design feature in its own right.
Early Duo-optimized titles include a retro cassette player, a virtual notebook, a flight tracker and even a digital toaster, ideas that lean on the hinged display instead of simply stretching a conventional phone layout across extra space.
The concept initially drew skepticism at its official unveiling, when the value of a folding handset and its tent-like viewing position was less than obvious at the price. Enthusiasm built later, as the developer community began publishing apps tailored to the hardware.
The result, in the view of one early observer, is a device that is not without flaws but comes across as playful and genuinely novel — a shift from the incremental thinner-and-faster upgrades that have defined recent iPhone cycles.
Apple's developer ecosystem has long been a reason users stay with the iPhone, and the Duo gives that community a new set of screen behaviors to build around.