27 June 2013

Allen Pike: “iOS 7: Catch me if you can”

iOS 7 was clearly designed to show off what’s possible in 2013. As a side effect, they’ve embraced conventions that will be hard to emulate with commodity hardware or web tech.

The hairlines and flourescent colours are trendy and easy to copy. On the other hand, bringing to life these blurs, animations, and dynamics with HTML and JavaScript isn’t yet possible. You need the latest hardware and the most efficient software to make something feel like this. Further, you need thoughtful APIs so developers can take it to its full potential. In short, the browser vendors have their work cut out for them. Allen Pike

The first comment sais it all: And what exactly is the benefit for the user? If that’s the real reason behind the radical redesign of iOS 7 (or at least one of them), keeping competitors at bay, then what happened to the famous focus on user experience Apple fans always love to brag about?!

Interestingly, Marco Arment has a nearly identical article, emphasizing even how the innovations will probably be defended in court by patents. A classic defensive move indeed, but one that shows weakness and lack of direction rather than healthy innovation.

Presumably, Apple has a few new patents for iOS 7’s interface and behavior. As we’ve seen, this won’t prevent copying, but it can at least increase the cost. Any efforts to copy the new UI are going to have a dark cloud of potential litigation hanging over them. Marco Arment

1 comment:

  1. Surely if it didn't benefit the user then it wouldn't have any effect on keeping competitors at bay anyway (in the extreme if it hurt experience then it would help competitors) - so of course they've built it with the user at the center.

    However if Apple are the only ones that can implement it that's not a bad side effect to them ...

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