Ever since the iPhone Duo was introduced, the idea of all the main navigation elements of the interface being accessible from your thumb has been really interesting. Apple reinvented the idea of smartphone navigation with the external display on the iPhone Duo, and now it seems all wrong for every smartphone to put first things first.
Everyone longs for the days when phones were smaller, especially because things were more reachable. The downside is that, well, the screen is quite small and the content landscape has evolved from that.
The iPhone Duo solves both of these problems while still offering a reasonably large rectangular viewing area to the left of the dock and a navigation area to the right. You still have a large viewing area and you still have everything at your fingertips.
Since Apple introduced it, many enthusiasts have floated the idea of an “iPhone Solo,” which is a display the size of an iPhone Duo, except it’s not foldable.
While I doubt Apple would offer it, I think it’s a pretty cool idea, and maybe one day it could make sense depending on how well the iPhone Duo performs. If you think about it, the current format of smartphones is a matter of chance. We had 16:9 displays, then we decided to eliminate all the bezels and the Home button, which turned the phones into this weirdly tall device where things aren’t really reachable.
iPhone Duo rethought what a smartphone form factor should be. Apple didn’t just slap regular iOS on the external display and be done with it. They rethought it to make it optimal, and now I envy the fact that my phone is so tall.
We’ll see what happens. An iPhone Solo could easily come to fruition if people received the Duo’s external screen well.
What do you think of the iPhone Solo concept? Would you buy one? Let us know in the comments below.
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