“Apple has unveiled one of the biggest gambles in its history with a radical overhaul of its iOS software,” Victoria Woollaston and Mark Prigg report for The Daily Mail. “The new iOS 7 software has a ‘flat design’, but critics say the dramatic new look could backfire, confusing users – while others claim it simply looks like Google’s rival Android system.”
“Experts warned the radical makeover could confuse some users,” Woollaston and Prigg report. Jan Dawson, chief telecoms analyst at Ovum, said it ‘represents a massive overhaul of the look and feel of the operating system, which has remained largely unchanged visually since the original version.’ However, he said the changes could be too much. ‘The new version is almost unrecognisable, which will make it polarizing. Some people will love that their phone feels new and different, while others will be disoriented by the newness.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Is that really the best you can do, Jan? Bland idiocy makes very poor FUD. Anyone “disoriented by the newness” of iOS 7 shouldn’t be attempting to operate a smartphone. “Almost unrecognizable?” Puleeze. Apple will gain millions more new iOS users than they would have without these myriad improvements.
Woollaston and Prigg report, “During its keynote speech Apple the firm also revealed a major overhaul of its Mac software. [Apple CEO Tim] Cook said 28 million copies of the latest version of its Mac OS software were in use, taking a jab at Microsoft by pointing out the low takeup of its Windows 8 software… Following the update to the Mac software, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, announced new models of its MacBook Air. Schiller hit out at critics of the firm who have claimed it can no longer produce radical new products since the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. ’Can’t innovate any more, my ass,’ he said as he revealed the dramatic tubular design of a new Mac Pro desktop PC, its high-end machine designed for musicians and video editors. Schiller claimed the new version of the Macbook Air laptop has a nine-hour battery life thanks to a new low power Intel chip.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple’s new Mac Pro would rank as the 8th most powerful supercomputer on planet Earth in 2003 – June 10, 2013
Up close and personal with Apple’s new ‘jet engine’ Mac Pro – June 10, 2013
Apple revamps look of iPhone, iPad software in quest for simplicity and elegance – June 10, 2013
iOS 7 is a new beginning for Apple’s iOS – June 10, 2013
Apple releases developer preview of OS X Mavericks with more than 200 new features – June 10, 2013
Apple unveils completely redesigned iOS 7 with new user interface, new features – June 10, 2013
Apple announces iTunes Radio – launches this fall – June 10, 2013
With new Mac Pro, Apple gives sneak peek into the future of the pro desktop – June 10, 2013
Apple brings all day battery life to MacBook Air – June 10, 2013
> The new version is almost unrecognisable…
Yeah, maybe to someone who has never used an iPhone for more than 5 minutes at a time, yet claims to be a “chief telecoms analyst.”
If they wont makes chanes… critics says the same the same
If they makes chanes.. critics.. confuse user coz of changes blah blah…
Cant edit my post.
Your message came through loud and clear 🙂
The only person I’ve heard voice any concerns about iOS 7 is my 75 year old mother. The changes to the icons will drive her nuts for a few weeks until she gets used to them.
Steven Jobs was very proud of 93 year old woman, who never used computer before, was composing poetry on iPad.
With “abstract” icons that less relate — or do not relate at all any more — to function of the applications, and thin fonts, muddy semi-transparent backgrounds, the UI got less intuitive and harder to perceive for common people.
(Of course, we, the power users, will be totally fine with it; but the cornerstone of iOS UI was not power users.)
spot on!
Functionality improvements to iOS7 are great..
I have decided that the simplistic icons, gaussian blur, and thin font are NOT improvements to my eyes.
Existing hardcore Apple users will leap on the transition, but i see nothing that will woo users from other platforms.
Well I am a lot younger than 75 and I think iOS 7 is butt ugly.
I’m amused at the level of intolorence and vitriol directed at anyone who isn’t in love with this new look. If you like it, great; I find it visually horrific. Just because you prefer Apple products (been a happy iPhone user since ’09; iPad user since ’10) doesn’t mean you have to approve everything that they do. Such attacks do nothing but showcase your immaturity and insecurity, and it confirms in many people’s minds that we are every bit the “sheep” that they label us as. Grow up….
Of course there are going to be a spectrum of responses. I do not think having any of those opinions makes one a “sheep”.
Ad hominem attacks from either perspective are not necessary.
That said, I think MDN has a point about the new design being “confusing”. That is independent of opinion of the look.
I don’t have a problem if you think the new theme is ugly — I’m going to need some time to get used to it myself.
My complaint is with whiners who think the new theme will confuse everybody, or who think iOS wasn’t changed enough.
——RM
I personally am not amused by teen-angst adults commenting on MDN for the sole reason of inciting others. People who follow MDN know of the typical trolls that spew out negativity and misinformation… when these easily-recognizable (and sometimes blatantly obvious) trolls start their tongues, it’s easy for us to discredit them; Sorta like swatting flies that never die. Does this make sense, Jdub? The majority of us enjoy honest critiques instead of useless, “provocative” drivel, and we’re allowed to be both vocal about it and walk with two legs at the same time.
Exactly correctu….
iOS 7 upgrade is not Compulsory . . .
Those easily confused won’t know how to/ just won’t upgrade anyway!
Um, except if you buy a new phone it will be compulsory.
…U.G.L.Y.
U.G.L.Y. you ain’t got no alibi, you ugly, you ugly.
Pretty much sums up what I feel about the icons. The shapes might be clever, but the coloring in is horrible … Safari icon is really very poor.
No doubt The Mail went on to say that using an iPhone causes cancer, and by buying one you are encouraging millions of terrorists and illegal immigrants to come into the UK.
For my American cousins, the Mail makes Fox News seem balanced. Most of their stories revolve around everything causing cancer and how everyone is flooding into the UK claiming benefits and stealing jobs.
I’m typing this on iOS 7, it’s a phenomenal improvement. It will be impossible to go back to 6.
Exactly! I have been using it since it hit in my developer account. It is completely different. Purposely avoided my iPad to focus on it. Now, this morning my iPad UI seems out of date. The initial reaction reminds me a lot of the original iPhone reaction. Funny how nobody talks about the icons on the other OS platforms. It is really is just trash to talk trash.
The reactions are predictable. We hear variants of them after each and every product unveiling.
Apple’s things are designed to be touched, handled, used; and when they are, the mutters tend to die away, replaced by an “Aha!” feeling.
Yes, Apple warns you that it is impossible to go back to iOS 6 if you install the iOS 7 beta!
The keyboard is an improvement. But the flat “metro” look is pure ugly and the icons are horrible. The text messaging app looks ugly, the calculator looks ugly its all ugly. Too bring, fonts to faint. I hate it. But if you like it more power to you. I suggest Apple provide people with options on how they want the UI to look.
I could not agree stupid people should not operate Smartphone especially an iPhone. These are the same people that should not operate motor vehicles. Like a friend once told me after my last girlfriend left me, “change is always good.”
Didn’t your friend also say “new is always better!”
As he took your old girlfriend out to the clubs…
Change is always good as long as it changed you.
I’m sure the change was good for her.
Could you draw a smiley face on that brown paper bag?
The “flatness” isn’t what I, or many people, expected. We’ve come to expect the Aqua look and feel, even though it’s been de-emphasized by Apple over time. While I don’t like some of the new native icons, the typography and layered depth are incredible. Those two elements, alone, more than atone for the visual hiccup. Ultimately, we’re going to spend the majority of our time in iOS interacting with or absorbing our content, not icons. I believe the icon layer will evolve over time, adding refinements and cleaning up concerns, and continue to be the best mobile computing platform available. The actual app interfaces are truly stunning. Safari, Calendar, Weather, and Photos, for example, are all stunning.
I’m a HUGE Apple fan, but I think it looks hideous… I’ll update and use it but its gonna take a while for me to get used to it(if I ever do). Not sure why they went with the color palette they did? Hey, its still better than that other guys crap…
I like the look and overall feel from yesterday’s presentation. There are some design elements (emphasis on “elements”) that do seem similar to those used in Android and Window Phone OS or whatever its called. But to me, iOS7 raises the modern/flat aesthetic a to a whole new level. Android always seems too cartoonish to me and Windows Phone OS seems like a relatively ham-handed application of the modern look. iOS7 has seems, for lack of a better word, classic. While there are some things I do not care for (too many bright white elements), but those do not detract from the whole.
Also, I think it is a mistake to simply say “flat” OS as if it is entirely descriptive. iOS7 does have those elements. But the transparency and depth elevate it beyond that simply descriptor. The OS indicates Ive has the same vision as Jobs – a focus on details and simplicity.
Aside from the aesthetic qualities, the update on the how things are done, eg control center, are about as Apple as it gets – simple and elegant methods that are focused on ease of use. There are a lot of these small changes and I am looking forward to using them. In some instances, they merely catch up to Android and Windows Phone OS, but in those cases are improvements over those OSes.
Now I wonder if ‘flat’ is a polite euphemism…
I guess what gets me is, without people even having an opportunity to really see and use the new operating system, people are making up their minds. I know what my first impressions are but I what to know more. We have months to wait. Give it time.
Absolutely , what was shown was only a preview. Until I get it in my hot sweaty palms it would be ridiculous to have an opinion pro or con. Apple has always put huge amounts of thought into its updates and so far I’ve never been disappointed. At first glance it seems an improvement to me, I won’t miss the silly green felt and spiral look etc.
It appears to be more elegant and focused but time will tell
They boast how Martha Stewart had a hand in
those color palette choices.
“Look fellas, consider this my legacy (cough cough)
For the love of god, please promise me you’ll
never use pastels. Bold brilliant full colors only.
(cough cough, wheeze, cough) I mean it.”
– Big Steve, watching the last few grains of sand
Good design is viral. Imagine the work in the real world that will improve because the people are using ios7.
I absolutely hate hot pink (the color, that is….) so any icon that shade, no matter how important, will have to be hidden.
Not a fan of hot orange, blue or purple, either.
OK, the icon color scheme needs to be softened, but other than that, I like what I saw.
Anything that looks different than it has previously is declared unrecognisable by the Mail. A celebrity puts on a hat and they’re unrecognisable. A celeb goes out shopping 20 years after they were in a film and they’re unrecognisable purely because of the mechanism of ageing that everyone experiences. I suspect the writers at the Mail lose some sort of facility for recognition when they get the part of their brain removed that allows them to work for the Mail.
The Mail is trash, it bangs on about things ruining the country, but then on the right of their site they have links to stories that are just hateful gossip.
Whilst I think some of the stock icons could use improvement because some are too basic in comparison to others, I don’t think it matters too much because your phone is going to be full of icons for third party apps that haven’t been updated so it’s largely unimportant for now.
You know Apple has done something right when the doom-and-gloomers can’t decide what’s wrong with the product. First we had commenters on this website whining that iOS 7 was essentially a new coat of paint on the same old thing. Now this guy comes along and warns that the new iOS “is almost unrecognisable”.
So which is it, Apple-bashers? Has Apple changed iOS too much or too little? Can’t be both.
——RM
iOS 7 looks excellent. I really like the “Desk Accessories” in the Control Center.
Will the Apple-bashers just shut up already? No, it is in their blood. Scorpions don’t change their nature just because their foes change the environment around them – which is essentially what Apple did. they tsunamied the landscape with what they unveiled yesterday. They definitely changed the game, didn’t they?
But Wall Street, et al, and all Apple-antis will never be satisfied. They tend to make lemons of lemonade or they don’t get paid.
Just because you don’t like the appearance of iOS 7 doesn’t make you an “Apple-basher”. It strains credibility when every move by Apple is hailed as the greatest thing of all time. There are many things to like about iOS 7 but the flat metro look is not one of them.
hey Jony, would it kill you to put some buttons and borders on this thing? Take Notes for example. I do not like the top navigation text bleeding into my content. It is a) ugly b) bad UI because it looks similar but behaves differently than the text below c) hard to teach new users. they don’t have to be supremely bevelled buttons, but just a shading underneath or a border so they don’t bleed into content.
I should also say there are some things I love about the interface and the speed with which one can navigate to different apps and see the content in the app on scrolling – very cool.
Def. still stuck on buttons – need to differentiate navigation from status text with more than just colored text IMHO. navigation, status and content are too mushed.
I have mixed feelings.
Some of the new UI is great. But some of it I’m not sure.
-It’s harder to distinguish the new icons. They don’t stand out as much.
-The new keyboard is a step back: thin text on a light background.
-Cluttered UIs because of a lack of icon use (Music App)
-Bad UI design because of a lack of color differentiation (Contacts App)
-Thin UI controls (Music scrubber) difficult to see and use.
I think there’s lots wrong and I’m finding it’s somewhat unuseable. I’ll see how I feel in a week.