The threat and the opportunity of Apple’s iOS 7 for developers

“With the new user interface, iOS7 is going to make Q4 2013 an interesting time to be a developer selling apps on Apple’s mobile devices,” Ewan Spence writes for Forbes. “With the changes to the look and feel of the core experience, any third party application that does not update itself is going to have many users thinking ‘this app looks tired.'”

“With a wealth of options in the App Store, I suspect that many users given two apps with the same functionality will choose the app that looks like iOS 7. And if that is a new app that’s going replace an app on their handset, then the switch will be made,” Spence writes. “What a fantastic move on the part of Tim Cook’s Apple.”

Spence writes, “This is the moment that developers large and small should be ready for, because the income distribution is going to radically shift. Users will be ready to pay a switching cost (both financial and mental) with the arrival of iOS 7. This is a huge opportunity for developers looking to get into a new space in the App Store and make a name for themselves. Existing developers will want to hold on to their user base, and perhaps reboot many of their applications and start with a blank piece of paper.”

Read more in the full article here.

34 Comments

        1. You’ve never used it, it’s still a beta, and you call it an epic fail.
          You, sir, like BLN, are an epic fuckwit.
          After iOS 7 is finally released, some months hence, and after you’ve actually had a chance to use it extensively in real life, then, and only then, will you and all the rest of the brainless ignorati

        2. (Damn, hit post by accident)
          …have a legitimate reason to comment on the appearance and usability of iOS 7. Once users start to put apps into folders, re-arrange them and move them onto other screens, change wallpaper, etc, the appearance will change dramatically.
          I’ll bet nobody at all who’s snivelling about iOS 7’s appearance has a vanilla home screen on their phone, so to whine about iOS 7’s vanilla appearance makes them blatant hypocrites

        3. Your name calling only highlights your immaturity and insecurity. If you like it, great. I think it is absolutely deplorable. To each his own. But the notion that anyone who disagrees with you about iOS 7 are “brainless ignorati” does more to highlight YOUR ignorance as opposed to the people you criticize…grow up and learn how disagree without acting like a child

        4. You are talking pastel colors are bad but most of the color pixels you are bitching about can be changed to hues you prefer.

          That’s not Epic fail, that’s any damn color you want, you estrogen hater you.

        5. Your level of criticism of iOS7 sounds childish and short sighted. Talking points ludicrously trivial and only opinion. Rorschach is absolutely right that iOS7 is looking great. There will probably be a few more things added that weren’t even talked about at the WWDC. It certainly seems immature to pronounce failure for somethng that has yet to be released. Personally I think people who pronounce “Epic Fail” before said product is out, fully used and a general consensus given, are idiots.

      1. Precisely. Not only will iOS7 be refined in the coming months, but it will be very popular.

        For those of you who don’t appreciate the new typefaces, I suggest that you watch the documentary “Helvetica”. It may change your viewpoint.

      1. By the way, designers mention that this superthin-too-close-together-letters font was not actually designed for plain text; it was designed for headers and subheaders. One of the reason why is exactly because the font is harder to read when it is plain small text.

    1. BLN makes me almost long for the old Sputnik posts on MDN.

      I actually do have iOS 7 on my phone. Its icons I feel could use some work, but it functions very well. It’s like a beautiful house that someone chose too bright a shade of paint. Very fixable before it goes public.

      1. Well said.

        True fanboys like myself are realistic, down to earth and not totally blind in devotion. Critical thinking is always a good thing.

        I see it as visually unappealing, flat and hard to read thin font. Like ‘Notes’ you have font options — why not with iOS7?

        Classic upgrade option button, Apple. Everyone has a choice and everyone wins. Personal customization of visuals and fonts would be a competitive advantage. 🙂

        1. GoeB the ONLY way I will upgrade to iOS 7 is if there is a classic view option. Most of what they introduced I can do via the jailbreak community anyway…

    2. Its not bad after a couple of days. You get used to it and its actually not bad. Better than Androids trashy OS with white on black and lag and everything else that comes with it.

  1. Question: how many of the apps you regularly use still sport the Apple interface elements?

    I ask because my apps only sparingly do, in places where it made sense to leave them unaltered; the main user interface is unique and specific to the task for which the app was designed.

  2. All the usual whining and bitching about any fundamental changes Apple makes always makes me laugh. Three months after this takes place we won’t hear another word about it and all of the idiots like BLN will have forgotten they ever threw their little hissy fit.

  3. The reason why iOS 7 will be an epic win is that it runs on COMPILED code, not some interpreted crap that runs on top of a runtime (Visual Basic anyone). The speed and power is always refreshing. If you are just looking at icons then you are obviously as superficial as the icons themselves. Let Microsuck and Gaggle do all the needless crap. iOS has always lended itself to the elegant solution. I have never seen an elegant solution on a WP or Andruid product.

  4. I watched the keynote video today and I am impressed with everything. IOS looks stunning. How ever I don’t know if the Apps need all that much updating. Maybe some new refinements but you have to understand, the majority if users will still be using iOS 6 and they will for a long time. Since old devices don’t support iOS 7 allot of users won’t be able to upgrade ad is stuck on iOS 6, until they buy a new Apple device, if they do. And with the popularity of the 4 this is a problem. It was a very convenient time for Apple to present the stats for iOS 6. They have not released a new device for a while and all the phones that people are still using was allowed to upgrade to iOS 6 and iOS 6 wasn’t released yesterday so most people have upgraded that could. I guess the 4S will be able to upgrade? At least the 5 and 5S will. And leaving out all iPod touches except the 5th gen will leave allot of users stranded on 6 so even though iOS 7 is fantastic don’t give up on iOS 6 yet… Wait a 1-2 years.

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