Nowhere is iOS's staleness more evident in everyday use than in its virtual keyboard. At the time iOS came out and dominated, typing on iOS seemed like the natural way to do it, so it's not a terrible implementation by any means.
But its autocorrect feature is absolutely abysmal. I tend to use the possessive "its" a lot. However, iOS will by default assume that I mean "it's" no matter the context of the sentence...which means that every time I want to use "its", I have to stop typing, look up at the text box, take my hands off the keyboard, and look for that stupid bubble and the tiny 'x' to prevent the autocorrection.
Android, by comparison, is practically magic. Perhaps it's because of the physical screen size that makes this possible, but how Android puts the autocorrect choices (three of them, not just one) right next to the keyboard is just pure logical genius. And I don't know what machine learning/natural language algorithm is used to guess the proper autocorrect choices but when typing at full blast, I have to deliberately make a typo for a typo to actually occur. iOS, by comparison, will inexplicably create nonsensical sentences with words I've never seen or used if I don't watch the textbox while typing. Maybe typing is old-fashioned and Apple wants to put more focus on swiping (Android's swipe keyboard is also pretty amazing, FWIW), but Jesus they've really let the keyboard go.
And of course, it's hard to imagine them ever catching up to Google in voice-input.
It's because Android keyboards are apps. It's part of being an open ecosystem; UI and utilities are not controlled by a central agency making decisions for everyone. There's so much typing innovation happening on Android that it's really amazing; Swype, SwiftKey, 8pen, that new one-line keyboard, and probably 50 projects I've never even heard of.
Absolutely on point. I use my iPad in the mornings for HN. I've had cases of such nonsensical text auto-contortions when posting that I've been asked if I was a native English speaker. It's embarrassing.
For business communications I have to be super careful not to look like a total idiot. This, to the point that my signature on iOS devices says something like: "My apologies for spelling and other errors. This was typed on an iPhone, which is not an accurate typing device".
My other pet peeve is the lack of cursor keys. I absolutely detest having to touch the text for editing. It's horribly clumsy and, as far as I am concerned, a huge step backwards. Everything doesn't have to be touch.
I see us migrating to Windows 8 tablets. They are far more usable and practical, keyboards are welcome (and normal) and a huge variety of them will be available. Want a 17 inch tablet (yes!) no problem. And, of course, you can use standard Windows programs and write them without asking for permission.
The more I look at what MS has done the more I see the genius of it all. I was quite negative about W8 when I tried the preview but have warmed-up to the ecosystem now.
I'm an iOS user, and I don't much exposure to Android, but I wonder -- is iOS really stale?
Apple's added a lot in the past few years while keeping the core design consistent. I'm sure they could have done more in this time period, but my personal feeling is that they don't want to confuse users with some of the more advanced things that can be done on other devices.
They want their devices to be useable by everyone, and even now, some things are confusing to novice users (folders, notification center). They are being conservative in their design, but it seems deliberate, and I wonder how that translates to the masses -- usable or out-of-date?
They are still selling every phone they can make, so I would guess no. The hardware, mostly the screen, needs some refreshing to be current with hardware on other platforms, but no, I wouldn't call it stale.
More like the media looking for something to talk about while waiting for the new, next iPhone to come out.
As someone who uses both (one personal, one work), but still finds myself gravitating towards iOS pretty much every time I have a choice, my view is that there are definitely a few places it could do with a bit of sprucing up.
The most obvious is clearly the lack of any form of live tiles/desktop/widgets. There's a few apps that I would love to get more information straight on the desktop than just a badge with a count of "actions" on it. The calendar, for example - at leas it actually shows today's date - but being able to show the next meeting at a glance would be great. Or being able to show a live stock ticker etc.
The other biggie for me is default apps. It's great that we now have Chrome on there, but I'd love to be able to get any browser link to launch that rather than Safari.
The skeurmorphic v flat thing is really just window-dressing though. Sure, there's a bit of reskinning that could be done in some of the apps, but if that's one of the biggest problems that people have with a UI that's 6 year old, then it's doing something right.
In the sense "they haven't surprised us with something totally new in a while, and we're lazy enough to pretend that me-too offerings by competitors are more current", yes.
I'm not suggesting that it's not worth debating whether iOS has become stale, but we can come up with more impartial arbiters of staleness than some of Apple's chief competitors, right? They make vague mention of, but never support with quotations, that this argument is taking place among non-competitors too. That's pretty lazy journalism.
From the article:
"BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins claimed that the look and feel of Apple’s mobile OS is outdated. “The rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly,” he argued. Chris Weber, executive vice president of Nokia’s sales and marketing, claimed that iOS’s focus on the app was “outdated.”
The iPhone is stale in the same way that the 911 is. This years 911 is better than last years, and this years iPhone is better than the last one. But this isn't about the iPhone, it's about iOS. A lot of the discussion has focussed around the devices themselves but that's not the point of the matter.
iOS in some respects is stale. The 'look' has been the same since the first iPhone came out of box. Is that a bad thing? Sure, to some people it is, they want new and fresh and different. That's not how Apple works though, they settle on a design paradigm and iterate repeatedly until they think it's time to move on.
At some point Apple is going to need to redesign iOS to better integrate features they've accumulated since 2007. I don't think we're anywhere near that point yet.
FWIW, Apple has made tweaks to the look and feel. The "dock" at the bottom of springboard has the 3D shelf instead of the grated metal. Apps like Music (formerly iPod), iTunes, Maps have had thorough design updates.
1. Many iOS users are now, for the first time, trying out Android as a result of affordable yet high quality devices being available (Nexus 4 and 7, especially).
2. Other platforms, especially Android, are introducing new features that iOS does not have and Apple may not wish to copy. For example: Android recently introduced lockscreen widgets, something I personally find to be completely over the top. Meanwhile, Samsung are trying out all kinds of wacky ideas (as seen with the S4 release). Compared to these, iOS does seem a little plain and boring - though personally I'm glad.
Up until 3-4 months ago, I was an Android user and had been for many years. I switched to an iPhone 5 and suddenly iOS feels fresh whilst Android feels stale. It's just what you're used to, I suspect.
Why do so many people take sides in the phone wars, when we the consumers benefit the most if these companies are competing fiercely with each other? Especially mystifying with reports like this one that are so thoroughly weak and lazy.
It would be bad if one company were to "win", which perhaps explains a lot of the zealous anti Apple commentary lately, because they've dominated for a while, but in the mean time don't forget that we are arguing over the features of commodity appliances. Arguing which phone is better is like arguing over which dishwasher is better.
It's insanely awesome how fast, how small, and how cheap computers are becoming. Throw in growing connectivity and sensing capability, and you realize this is an amazing time. I don't want Google to lose, or Apple to lose. I want them all to win and keep pressuring each other so they all keep making computers smaller, cheaper and more accessible to me.
Not only is it looking stale, but it feels stale. The silo workflow for iOS is so bad for accomplishing simple tasks that require cross application integration.
As a user who has moved from iPhone to Windows Phone 8... yes, their UI is stale.
I'm never going to be able to convince Mac users that Windows Phone is better as an overall phone (though I believe it is), but the UI is responsive, informative, and pleasantly minimal. Most folks agree with that when they get the chance to play with it (despite their repeated assurances to me that they would never switch to Windows).
I also have a Windows Phone 8 (Lumia 820) and indeed, in comparison the iOS UI is very stale. What I do miss is polish of applications (both Microsoft's and third-party), e.g. Facebook in the people hub does not work well (blocked feeds show up again, I cannot like comments, etc). 1Password is only a ghost of its polished iOS version.
Also, the battery life is sh*t. My iPhone 4 usually lasted four a five full days, while the Lumia is often gone in 12 hours during a work day. It's very inconvenient when you have a long commute.
Currently Apple still makes up the lack of innovation with polish. But time is ticking away...
As someone who just returned my Surface RT for an iPad Mini (lack of LTE was a dealbreaker), I'll say this: Metro is pretty, but it's not all that functional. It has really low content density. The gestures are very well done, much better than iOS, but as a whole I think it's at least one revision away from being competitive functionally.
The iPhone has remained virtually unchanged over the last 5 years. Each model is slightly faster and slightly brighter. Sure you fanboys can make the argument about every feature added, but look at the specs differences. And the look and feel of the phone has barely changed[1].
If you look at the progress not just in design, but software, hardware and everything. Samsung, HTC, Nokia, all the major manfs have come miles further than Apple in the last 5 years when it comes to hardware design.
When it comes to software Android has also come miles in the last few years. People that aren't Android users don't realize this and go with the same standby arguments against Android (fragmented, ugly ui, non-integrated UI). When Android first came on the market (HTC G1) it could not even compare to an iPhone. But Android has solved many of these problems over the years, due partially to the fact that it's open source and has lots of people / companies contributing to it. It has now come to a point where it is miles beyond iOS and iOS has even gone as far as starting to steal features from Android (notifications drawer anyone?).
I've said it before I will say it again. Apple should spend less money worrying about and suing it's competitors and spend more time and money on improving their mediocre products.
The time for something new from Apple is definitely soon or they risk starting to lose market share. Although, most of their users are to drunk on koolaid to even know what other products are in the market.
And thanks to companies like Samsung, we can finally wave our hands in front of our phones to swipe pages and awkwardly hover over the screen with our fingers to interact with our phone in new and completely useless ways. Seriously, there's not a whole lot of useful innovation happening on either side of the fence. Smartphones have peaked and are now commodities. Arguing about who's more innovative in this space is like trying to make the case for Ford being more innovative than Chevy because they added a motion sensor to their trunks so people can open them by waving their foot underneath the bumper.
Can we just move on, and for the love of god, stop using the term "Fanboy"?
Maybe HTC, Samsung, Nokia et al have come so far in the last five years because they had no choice. If you look at Android phones from 5 years ago, they were mostly shit. The original iPhone was a huge departure from where mobile phones sat 5 years ago.
Does Apple need to change up the look of iOS, yeah probably. But they won't make a radical departure from where they are right now. They are still selling the phone that they built 3 generations ago, and they're selling it well. I'd say that the vacuum chamber says iOS is stale, but the consumer does not.
> If you look at the progress not just in design, but software, hardware and everything. Samsung, HTC, Nokia, all the major manfs have come miles further than Apple in the last 5 years when it comes to hardware design.
Are you serious? The iPhone 5 came out six months ago, and still holds its own hardware-wise. It's the thinnest and lightest of the flagship phones. Dual Core A6 is entirely competitive with the Snapdragon S4 in the new Nokia on a CPU basis, and while the quad core Snapdragon in the U.S. version of the Galaxy S4 will have more cores, it's not clear phone software can effectively use the extra cores. It had the fastest GPU of any phone at release. The Adreno 320 in the new HTC One and the 544MP3 in the international Galaxy S4 simply bring Samsung and HTC to parity with Apple's 6 month old phone (and the Adreno 225 in the Nokia 920 is comparable to the GPU in the iPhone 4s).
There are certain design decisions Apple makes versus its competitors. It has so far chosen to spend its transistor budget and TDP on more GPU cores than CPU cores. It has also chosen to favor weight and size over screen size. Given the popularity of the iPhone 5, it's hard to say that these are the wrong trade-offs to make.
>> "Sure you fanboys can make the argument about every feature added, but look at the specs differences."
>> "Although, most of their users are to drunk on koolaid to even know what other products are in the market."
You know, statements like this make you come off as if you're just the flip-side of a fan-boy, with equally irrational emotions coloring your logic. It really dilutes the point you are attempting to make.
Given the tone in the initial paragraph, I'm not sure if you're receptive to these arguments, but here goes.
Using the very wiki page you linked, over 5 years the changes were:
* 4x in default storage
* 8x in default RAM
* over 4x in number of pixels (doubling PPI, and increasing height)
* 4x increase in camera pixels
* Addition of full HD video
* Addition of GPS, Compass
* 20x (at least) increase in processor performance
* 2x increase in battery life
* 35% decrease in thickness
* 16% in weight
* Same cost
If all of these are "slight" changes, I'm not sure what to say. Would you say a stock portfolio changed "slightly" if it quadrupled in 5 years?
The form factor and design is branding. You might as well say "Porsche has barely changed their form factor in 40 years". The point is to be recognizable, not to arbitrarily change a design. And for a human-interacting product, our hands didn't change much in 5 years, so the "ideal" handheld device shape probably wouldn't change much either (if it does, it likely means we didn't look hard enough the first time around).
I've said it before I will say it again. Apple should spend less money worrying about and suing it's competitors and spend more time and money on improving their mediocre products.
Do you honestly think that Apple are incapable of developing products and suing people simultaneously?
" If you look at the progress not just in design, but software, hardware and everything. Samsung, HTC, Nokia, all the major manfs have come miles further than Apple in the last 5 years when it comes to hardware design. "
Hardware design is just one (of many) important characteristics in smartphone design. Of much greater importance is the balance across the different characteristics.
" Was I the only one that missed the part where the article explains why "It's Still the Platform to Beat"? "
I don't think you missed it; I think you dismissed or disagreed with it.
It's here: iOS has undeniably great, intuitive touch-based gestures and a straightforward layout.
And here: “It’s that simplicity, combined with a deep developer and app ecosystem, that really has given iOS its power with users.”
And here: One of the biggest benefits of the current iOS platform, from a developer standpoint, is that no matter what type of app you’re creating, you can find a few hundred existing examples of what works. And that isn’t always true on other platforms
For example, WNM Live CEO Brian Hamachek said when his company decided to create a Windows Phone app, there was “not much we could use as a basis for how it should be laid out, we had to come out with own path — which can be a little risky.” As for Android, Hamachek said it’s “like the wild west” and that there really isn’t much of a standard user interface to go off of, which isn’t good for devs or users.
Apple’s human interface guidelines make it easy create an app that looks and feels like an iOS app.
[+] [-] danso|13 years ago|reply
But its autocorrect feature is absolutely abysmal. I tend to use the possessive "its" a lot. However, iOS will by default assume that I mean "it's" no matter the context of the sentence...which means that every time I want to use "its", I have to stop typing, look up at the text box, take my hands off the keyboard, and look for that stupid bubble and the tiny 'x' to prevent the autocorrection.
Android, by comparison, is practically magic. Perhaps it's because of the physical screen size that makes this possible, but how Android puts the autocorrect choices (three of them, not just one) right next to the keyboard is just pure logical genius. And I don't know what machine learning/natural language algorithm is used to guess the proper autocorrect choices but when typing at full blast, I have to deliberately make a typo for a typo to actually occur. iOS, by comparison, will inexplicably create nonsensical sentences with words I've never seen or used if I don't watch the textbox while typing. Maybe typing is old-fashioned and Apple wants to put more focus on swiping (Android's swipe keyboard is also pretty amazing, FWIW), but Jesus they've really let the keyboard go.
And of course, it's hard to imagine them ever catching up to Google in voice-input.
[+] [-] cryptoz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robomartin|13 years ago|reply
For business communications I have to be super careful not to look like a total idiot. This, to the point that my signature on iOS devices says something like: "My apologies for spelling and other errors. This was typed on an iPhone, which is not an accurate typing device".
My other pet peeve is the lack of cursor keys. I absolutely detest having to touch the text for editing. It's horribly clumsy and, as far as I am concerned, a huge step backwards. Everything doesn't have to be touch.
I see us migrating to Windows 8 tablets. They are far more usable and practical, keyboards are welcome (and normal) and a huge variety of them will be available. Want a 17 inch tablet (yes!) no problem. And, of course, you can use standard Windows programs and write them without asking for permission.
The more I look at what MS has done the more I see the genius of it all. I was quite negative about W8 when I tried the preview but have warmed-up to the ecosystem now.
[+] [-] nopal|13 years ago|reply
Apple's added a lot in the past few years while keeping the core design consistent. I'm sure they could have done more in this time period, but my personal feeling is that they don't want to confuse users with some of the more advanced things that can be done on other devices.
They want their devices to be useable by everyone, and even now, some things are confusing to novice users (folders, notification center). They are being conservative in their design, but it seems deliberate, and I wonder how that translates to the masses -- usable or out-of-date?
[+] [-] ocean12|13 years ago|reply
They are still selling every phone they can make, so I would guess no. The hardware, mostly the screen, needs some refreshing to be current with hardware on other platforms, but no, I wouldn't call it stale.
More like the media looking for something to talk about while waiting for the new, next iPhone to come out.
[+] [-] prof_hobart|13 years ago|reply
The most obvious is clearly the lack of any form of live tiles/desktop/widgets. There's a few apps that I would love to get more information straight on the desktop than just a badge with a count of "actions" on it. The calendar, for example - at leas it actually shows today's date - but being able to show the next meeting at a glance would be great. Or being able to show a live stock ticker etc.
The other biggie for me is default apps. It's great that we now have Chrome on there, but I'd love to be able to get any browser link to launch that rather than Safari.
The skeurmorphic v flat thing is really just window-dressing though. Sure, there's a bit of reskinning that could be done in some of the apps, but if that's one of the biggest problems that people have with a UI that's 6 year old, then it's doing something right.
[+] [-] coldtea|13 years ago|reply
In the sense "they haven't surprised us with something totally new in a while, and we're lazy enough to pretend that me-too offerings by competitors are more current", yes.
[+] [-] gavinlynch|13 years ago|reply
From the article:
"BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins claimed that the look and feel of Apple’s mobile OS is outdated. “The rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly,” he argued. Chris Weber, executive vice president of Nokia’s sales and marketing, claimed that iOS’s focus on the app was “outdated.”
[+] [-] dclowd9901|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dr_|13 years ago|reply
By the same token, does Google's homepage look stale?
[+] [-] fpgeek|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicholassmith|13 years ago|reply
iOS in some respects is stale. The 'look' has been the same since the first iPhone came out of box. Is that a bad thing? Sure, to some people it is, they want new and fresh and different. That's not how Apple works though, they settle on a design paradigm and iterate repeatedly until they think it's time to move on.
[+] [-] ChrisLTD|13 years ago|reply
FWIW, Apple has made tweaks to the look and feel. The "dock" at the bottom of springboard has the 3D shelf instead of the grated metal. Apps like Music (formerly iPod), iTunes, Maps have had thorough design updates.
[+] [-] duaneb|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kaolinite|13 years ago|reply
1. Many iOS users are now, for the first time, trying out Android as a result of affordable yet high quality devices being available (Nexus 4 and 7, especially).
2. Other platforms, especially Android, are introducing new features that iOS does not have and Apple may not wish to copy. For example: Android recently introduced lockscreen widgets, something I personally find to be completely over the top. Meanwhile, Samsung are trying out all kinds of wacky ideas (as seen with the S4 release). Compared to these, iOS does seem a little plain and boring - though personally I'm glad.
Up until 3-4 months ago, I was an Android user and had been for many years. I switched to an iPhone 5 and suddenly iOS feels fresh whilst Android feels stale. It's just what you're used to, I suspect.
[+] [-] gte910h|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dahart|13 years ago|reply
It would be bad if one company were to "win", which perhaps explains a lot of the zealous anti Apple commentary lately, because they've dominated for a while, but in the mean time don't forget that we are arguing over the features of commodity appliances. Arguing which phone is better is like arguing over which dishwasher is better.
It's insanely awesome how fast, how small, and how cheap computers are becoming. Throw in growing connectivity and sensing capability, and you realize this is an amazing time. I don't want Google to lose, or Apple to lose. I want them all to win and keep pressuring each other so they all keep making computers smaller, cheaper and more accessible to me.
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] joeblau|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] falcolas|13 years ago|reply
I'm never going to be able to convince Mac users that Windows Phone is better as an overall phone (though I believe it is), but the UI is responsive, informative, and pleasantly minimal. Most folks agree with that when they get the chance to play with it (despite their repeated assurances to me that they would never switch to Windows).
[+] [-] microtonal|13 years ago|reply
Also, the battery life is sh*t. My iPhone 4 usually lasted four a five full days, while the Lumia is often gone in 12 hours during a work day. It's very inconvenient when you have a long commute.
Currently Apple still makes up the lack of innovation with polish. But time is ticking away...
[+] [-] rayiner|13 years ago|reply
That said, it's heaps better than Android.
[+] [-] duaneb|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thechut|13 years ago|reply
If you look at the progress not just in design, but software, hardware and everything. Samsung, HTC, Nokia, all the major manfs have come miles further than Apple in the last 5 years when it comes to hardware design.
When it comes to software Android has also come miles in the last few years. People that aren't Android users don't realize this and go with the same standby arguments against Android (fragmented, ugly ui, non-integrated UI). When Android first came on the market (HTC G1) it could not even compare to an iPhone. But Android has solved many of these problems over the years, due partially to the fact that it's open source and has lots of people / companies contributing to it. It has now come to a point where it is miles beyond iOS and iOS has even gone as far as starting to steal features from Android (notifications drawer anyone?).
I've said it before I will say it again. Apple should spend less money worrying about and suing it's competitors and spend more time and money on improving their mediocre products.
The time for something new from Apple is definitely soon or they risk starting to lose market share. Although, most of their users are to drunk on koolaid to even know what other products are in the market.
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices#iPhone
[+] [-] marknutter|13 years ago|reply
Can we just move on, and for the love of god, stop using the term "Fanboy"?
[+] [-] shadesandcolour|13 years ago|reply
Does Apple need to change up the look of iOS, yeah probably. But they won't make a radical departure from where they are right now. They are still selling the phone that they built 3 generations ago, and they're selling it well. I'd say that the vacuum chamber says iOS is stale, but the consumer does not.
[+] [-] rayiner|13 years ago|reply
Are you serious? The iPhone 5 came out six months ago, and still holds its own hardware-wise. It's the thinnest and lightest of the flagship phones. Dual Core A6 is entirely competitive with the Snapdragon S4 in the new Nokia on a CPU basis, and while the quad core Snapdragon in the U.S. version of the Galaxy S4 will have more cores, it's not clear phone software can effectively use the extra cores. It had the fastest GPU of any phone at release. The Adreno 320 in the new HTC One and the 544MP3 in the international Galaxy S4 simply bring Samsung and HTC to parity with Apple's 6 month old phone (and the Adreno 225 in the Nokia 920 is comparable to the GPU in the iPhone 4s).
The iPhone 5 owned the benchmarks when it was released: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6324/the-iphone-5-performance-....
There are certain design decisions Apple makes versus its competitors. It has so far chosen to spend its transistor budget and TDP on more GPU cores than CPU cores. It has also chosen to favor weight and size over screen size. Given the popularity of the iPhone 5, it's hard to say that these are the wrong trade-offs to make.
[+] [-] gavinlynch|13 years ago|reply
>> "Although, most of their users are to drunk on koolaid to even know what other products are in the market."
You know, statements like this make you come off as if you're just the flip-side of a fan-boy, with equally irrational emotions coloring your logic. It really dilutes the point you are attempting to make.
[+] [-] kalid|13 years ago|reply
Using the very wiki page you linked, over 5 years the changes were:
* 4x in default storage * 8x in default RAM * over 4x in number of pixels (doubling PPI, and increasing height) * 4x increase in camera pixels * Addition of full HD video * Addition of GPS, Compass * 20x (at least) increase in processor performance * 2x increase in battery life * 35% decrease in thickness * 16% in weight * Same cost
If all of these are "slight" changes, I'm not sure what to say. Would you say a stock portfolio changed "slightly" if it quadrupled in 5 years?
The form factor and design is branding. You might as well say "Porsche has barely changed their form factor in 40 years". The point is to be recognizable, not to arbitrarily change a design. And for a human-interacting product, our hands didn't change much in 5 years, so the "ideal" handheld device shape probably wouldn't change much either (if it does, it likely means we didn't look hard enough the first time around).
[+] [-] MrScruff|13 years ago|reply
Do you honestly think that Apple are incapable of developing products and suing people simultaneously?
[+] [-] micampe|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ocean12|13 years ago|reply
Hardware design is just one (of many) important characteristics in smartphone design. Of much greater importance is the balance across the different characteristics.
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] drivebyacct2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ocean12|13 years ago|reply
I don't think you missed it; I think you dismissed or disagreed with it.
It's here: iOS has undeniably great, intuitive touch-based gestures and a straightforward layout.
And here: “It’s that simplicity, combined with a deep developer and app ecosystem, that really has given iOS its power with users.”
And here: One of the biggest benefits of the current iOS platform, from a developer standpoint, is that no matter what type of app you’re creating, you can find a few hundred existing examples of what works. And that isn’t always true on other platforms
For example, WNM Live CEO Brian Hamachek said when his company decided to create a Windows Phone app, there was “not much we could use as a basis for how it should be laid out, we had to come out with own path — which can be a little risky.” As for Android, Hamachek said it’s “like the wild west” and that there really isn’t much of a standard user interface to go off of, which isn’t good for devs or users.
Apple’s human interface guidelines make it easy create an app that looks and feels like an iOS app.
[+] [-] ichtet31|13 years ago|reply