Apple's Passbook, Dunkin Donuts & Facebook Offers

An example of the potential power of Apple's new Passbook for:Brands (here Dunkin Donuts) Platforms (here Facebook / Facebook Offers) Consumers (simplicity, speed)

Dunkin Donuts running a week-long promotion for their holiday bagel using Facebook Offers:

Upon acceptance, Facebook shares socially and then emails users steps for redemption:

Users then have to print the coupon (per below). But this could pass through to Passbook or into a Facebook Offers Book / application. Thus keeping everything mobile, eliminating friction, and adding tracking throughout the entire process:

Scale Requires Curation, Apple Beginning to Address in iTunes & App Store with iOS 6

I have been sitting on this post for weeks and weeks: I tend to write posts, or the skeleton of posts, ahead of time and publish them later on. In some cases enough time passes - or enough happens and changes - that it makes those posts irrelevant. This one is pretty close. I had the below screenshot surrounded by blurbs outlining three primary points: 1. We all talk about curation as the balance to search in finding. Apple does a good job with it in Movies and in app themes (Fitness: Get in Shape below). This experience is far better than searching a basic category. And they do a better job with it in Movies (actors, categories, etc).

2. Curation of some sort is necessary as content scales. Findability was a constant focus for eBay and for anyone with great inventory: Apple, iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, etc. It is probably best as a balance of editorial and algorithmic curation.

3. Curation is powerful by Apple. But it doesn't scale. Curation by friends (hello Facebook, data!) is arguably more powerful and does indeed scale.

This of course is all rather out of date (good!) with Apple's WWDC and iOS 6 announcement on Monday. Coming in iOS 6 are Facebook recommendations to the app store (terrific news - years late, but great... and it looks similar to Facebook's own App Store effort). Furthermore, they are remodeling the Appe Store, iTunes and the iBookstore. Those mock ups (small one below) look like a great effort will be placed on visuals, findability and some form of curation (again: algorithmic + editorial).

From Apple's iOS 6 intro page:

Apple's Gorgeous iOS 6 Product Page.

So much has already been written about Apple's WWDC and their iOS 6 announcement... and I too will pile on a couple short (and late) reactions. This one really has nothing to do with the hardware or the software... but rather the store page Apple created to showcase iOS 6. I tweeted about it last night:

Having reflected a little more on it - and the many discussions I have had over great product / merchandising pages (from eBay to portfolio to here on the blog) - I think it is worth showcasing this page once more.

A couple quick notes, which will essentially just expand on my 100 character tweet:

1. The page is entirely on-brand for Apple. Familiar.

2. It's a single page. Yet it is very easy to navigate. The icons atop the page move you throughout.

3. It is content heavy... but you wouldn't know it. Secondary elements are tucked away within each feature - for instance, the Facebook section has three sub-bullets which navigate horizontally - meanwhile, the core features navigate vertically.

4. It reads like a newspaper. The headlines are atop. The supporting content is ordered by importance. And the tertiary content (smaller features, developer kits, compatibility) are tucked at the bottom and formatted differently.

5. It's visual. Great looking and easy to consume.

And it's applicable beyond products. This page (it's layout, characteristics, etc) is relevant for merchandise (ie physical product), services (ie subscriptions, SaaS), about-us (ie informational content) and beyond.