Editorial: iOS 7 shows how Apple is leading mobile computing

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  • Reply 181 of 312
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    mechanic wrote: »
    One of the most uncanny abilities Jobs Ever had was to find super brilliant people, Ive being one of the best.
    But Steve didn't hire him, so really we should be thanking Robert Brunner. :)
  • Reply 182 of 312
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I'm not his worshiper but the guy could deliver. He did a decent job as the single head of iOS software. We'll see if this Ive/Federighi hybrid can do better.
    Yeah maps was such a great product. And I love my quick access to common settings in iOS 6. :rolleyes:

    Forstall delivered the App Store (very big deal) but after that I get the sense he was coasting. Or not sure what to do. I mean one of the big features he highlighted last year was Siri providing sports scores. Seriously?!?
  • Reply 183 of 312
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    d4njvrzf wrote: »
    You may be right about MS. The designs of Android and WP8 make more sense if you think of the OS as primarily an information hub and secondly a vehicle for launching apps. Widgets and live-tiles are not such absurd ideas if your first priority is to deliver relevant data to the user as efficiently as possible. For example, presenting the weather or the next appointment on the home screen saves the user from having to dig into dedicated apps for the information. Google seems to subscribe to this "information first" philosophy as evidenced by its effort on products like Google Now, and by its design of android, which reserves the homescreen mainly for information (in the form of widgets) while storing most apps in the app drawer.
    But isn't that what we're starting to get in notification center? I still don't think widgets are necessarily more efficient. Maybe if you just have one or two. But when you have the mess that is Windows 8 live tiles how do you easily and efficiently follow all those updating tiles? And outside of a weather widget how much information do they really show you? Certainly not enough where you wouldn't have to launch the app anyway.
  • Reply 184 of 312
    djr12 wrote: »
    And certainly much of this UI isn't hard to copy. For kicks, I recreated the Mail mailbox screen in 20 minutes using nothing but Microsoft Word.
    You really should try to get out more.
  • Reply 185 of 312
    povilas wrote: »
    I am relaxed. I just said that on 4/4S it's unsuabale.
    I see where you're coming from. I've been running it on a 4 and am disappointed by what I see (and don't see) in beta 1. That thick, gray bar behind the bottom icons is ugly as hell. The transparency effects, even though they are simplistic on the 4, are horrible. Scrolling through lists such as in calendar and contacts is choppy at best. It freezes and cuts out randomly. Even though a lot of visual elements have been removed for the iPhone 4, it's still a sluggish beast. But, I keep in mind that its a beta product and I actually like a lot of the added features. I'm holding onto hope that it will improve to the point of being incredible even on a 4.
  • Reply 186 of 312
    iOS is pretty much dead with the release of the 7th version. They need to put Scott Forstall back in charge. The sooner they realize that , the better.
    Nice first post Mr. Forstall.
    ;)
  • Reply 187 of 312
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    iOS is pretty much dead with the release of the 7th version. They need to put Scott Forstall back in charge. The sooner they realize that , the better.
    Jony Ive's reaction after reading your post:

    2k1qoo.jpg
  • Reply 188 of 312
    crushedcrushed Posts: 18member
  • Reply 189 of 312
    For those complaining about battery life on iOS7, please be aware all debugs are active hence the increased battery usage.

    iOS "Beta" is for developers to test apps on, not really for use as a daily driver.

    Measure twice cut once.

  • Reply 190 of 312
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by crushed View Post



    And dynamic type is just one of those incredibly cool things in iOS 7...


    Yes, the dynamic type impressed me a lot in the WWDC videos.

  • Reply 191 of 312
    poksipoksi Posts: 482member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by grunt56 View Post



    "The WinTel partners erected substantial barriers to entry that ensured nobody else could directly compete in PCs. This arrangement only ended when the complacency and lack of competitive advancement by Intel and Microsoft reached a point where both parties failed to recognize and actively address the emergence of mobile computing."



    Lack of competitive advancement defines exactly what Apple has done with iOS up to now. It's not innovating anymore, just playing catch-up. You can safely compare iOS to Windows XP and think of all of its iterations up to version 6 as "Service Packs". Now with iOS7 they are finally doing something different but what remains to be seen is if iOS7 will be Apple's "Vista" failure or "Windows 7" success. Like Microsoft, Apple stopped innovating while trying to cash on its market leadership.



    Say what you want about Google but their rate and pace of innovation on Android surpassed iOS by far in the last couple of years. There's not a single feature on iOS7 that sets it apart from the already existing ones from its competitors operating systems. All the way back from 2007 to 2010 you couldn't say the same... Apple was always ahead of the competition, unfortunately not anymore.


     


    Things change and this is called "a process". Unfortunately, you don't get it. You fail to grasp that technology/product/product niche/... can happen only once in a while and Apple is holding the record for last decade and half in such breakthroughs. Time in-between is always spent by everyone to enhance products and services, which you call cashing in. Let it be. I don't mind.


     


    Apple cannot reinvent the wheel in smartphone area, but what they are doing for sure is bringing the best integrated experience to the user, making them possible to make the best out of their investments. Whether it takes innovation to do this or not is matter of taste, however, talking about Apple to stop innovating while having no clue at all what their next product will be is speculative, naive or even trolling. 


     


    THe question I always ask the people claiming how innovative Google is which never gets any real answer except counting some minor standard app integrated in Android thus killing better 3rd party apps: can someone really tell me where is Google so innovative? Maps, Drive, Plus, Mail, Books, Docs, maybe? Something else drastically new no one else has had before as a finished product? What, then?  How does Apple lag behind this?

  • Reply 192 of 312
    enatureenature Posts: 77member

    Quote:



    Originally Posted by enature View Post


    For Steve Jobs, "the best" had a simple meaning - the best product is the one that takes the least effort to use. The Principle of Least Effort was inseparable from Steve Jobs.


     


    Cook, on the other hand, complicates the definition of "the best" by adding considerations that he himself is good at - production logistics, cost/profit analysis, supply chain considerations. 



    Originally Posted by tundraboy View Post


     


    Hunh?  .... how were you ever able to deduce what Tim Cook's thinking is on the matter?  Were you able to glean some hidden meaning from the keynote presentations?  




    You asked a fair question. I'll answer by disecting one of Cook's recent responses. When Walt Mossberg from WSJ asked Cook about iPhone's screen size - a critical issue that largely led to the downfall of AAPL - Cook said the following:  


     


    "A large screen today comes with a lot of tradeoffs. Customers are clearly looking at the size, but they also look at things like 'do the photos show the proper color? The white balance, the reflectivity, battery life. The longevity of the display.'"


     


    I hope I do not need to explain to you why this "white balance, the reflectivity" comment is - as one Apple Insider forum member justly called it - "pure unadulterated bullshit."


     


    What Cook was actually doing is covering up his decision to go with small 4" size. He knew that 4" was the most convenient choice logistically - that's what his spreadsheets showed. In fact, many rushed to defend Cook by explaining how 4" was the best choice considering the production contracts Apple had at the time with screen manufacturers, and that Jobs himself approved 4" back in 2010. This is typical Tim Cook - trying to be safe by accounting for many things, including profits, but overlooking the most important one - WILL SMALL SCREEN BE EASIER TO INTERACT WITH in 2012?


     


    By early 2012, it was clear to any perceptive person who ventured outside of the US that a larger screen is the future. Larger size makes it EASIER to accomplish most tasks - aside from talking, which people started to do less and less in 2012. Asians, for example started to switch to phablets by the end of 2011.


     


    Jobs, who never gave a shit to what he said or approved beforehand, would move mountains, force engineers to make impossible, but he would make sure that iPhone 5 had a screen size that made it the easiest in use smartphone on the market. 


     


    Jobs had both vision and balls to do it. Cook has neither. 

  • Reply 193 of 312
    pedromartinspedromartins Posts: 1,333member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by grunt56 View Post



    "The WinTel partners erected substantial barriers to entry that ensured nobody else could directly compete in PCs. This arrangement only ended when the complacency and lack of competitive advancement by Intel and Microsoft reached a point where both parties failed to recognize and actively address the emergence of mobile computing."



    Lack of competitive advancement defines exactly what Apple has done with iOS up to now. It's not innovating anymore, just playing catch-up. You can safely compare iOS to Windows XP and think of all of its iterations up to version 6 as "Service Packs". Now with iOS7 they are finally doing something different but what remains to be seen is if iOS7 will be Apple's "Vista" failure or "Windows 7" success. Like Microsoft, Apple stopped innovating while trying to cash on its market leadership.



    Say what you want about Google but their rate and pace of innovation on Android surpassed iOS by far in the last couple of years. There's not a single feature on iOS7 that sets it apart from the already existing ones from its competitors operating systems. All the way back from 2007 to 2010 you couldn't say the same... Apple was always ahead of the competition, unfortunately not anymore.


    I say it's the opposite.

  • Reply 194 of 312
    poksipoksi Posts: 482member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by enature View Post




    Unlike Cook zealots, you asked a fair question. I'll answer by disecting one of Cook's recent responses. When Walt Mossberg from WSJ asked Cook about iPhone's screen size - a critical issue that largely led to the downfall of AAPL - Cook said the following:  


     


    "A large screen today comes with a lot of tradeoffs. Customers are clearly looking at the size, but they also look at things like 'do the photos show the proper color? The white balance, the reflectivity, battery life. The longevity of the display.'"


     


    I hope I do not need to explain to you why this "white balance, the reflectivity" comment is - as one Apple Insider forum member justly called it - "pure unadulterated bullshit."


     


    What Cook was actually doing is covering up his decision to go with small 4" size. He knew that 4" was the most convenient choice logistically - that's what his spreadsheets showed. In fact, many Cook zealots rushed to defend Cook by explaining how 4" was the best choice considering the production contracts Apple had at the time with screen manufacturers, and that Jobs himself approved 4" back in 2010. This is typical Tim Cook - trying to be safe by accounting for many things, including profits, but overlooking the most important one - WILL SMALL SCREEN BE EASIER TO INTERACT WITH in 2012?


     


    By early 2012, it was clear to any perceptive person who ventured outside of the US that a larger screen is the future. Larger size makes it EASIER to accomplish most tasks - aside from talking, which people started to do less and less in 2012. Asians, for example started to switch to phablets by the end of 2011.


     


    Jobs, who never gave a shit to what he said or approved beforehand, would move mountains, force engineers to make impossible, but he would make sure that iPhone 5 had a screen size that made it the easiest in use smartphone on the market. 


     


    Jobs had both vision and balls to do it. Cook has neither. 



     


    Cook and perhaps many other (rivalry between Forstall and Ive has surely contributed as well) people and factors made the situation where Apple simply hasn't reacted properly to swift change of market perception. However, your perception, or better said black&white imaging of Steve and Tim is also wrong.


     


    Single screen size was clearly Steve's choice, I am pretty much sure he started to think like back in 80's about Mac, refusing expansion of product line. Crucial and perhaps most fateful decision was introduction of retina screen to 3.5" 4S. This has set the barrier for doubling the screen resolution format and follow Apple's logic of screen format computation very high. So high, that enlarging the screen size in 2012 was made almost impossible through "classical" Apple upgrade logic. 4" screen size was very much obvious emergency exit, act of buying time.


     


    I believe management found out that further doubling the dpi is very hard and useless and I strongly believe there is 3rd screen resolution platform on the way, I am pretty much sure Auto Layouts are not being pushed only for Dynamic Types, but also to accomodate different screen sizes, at least for some parts of applications.


     


    Yes, Apple has failed to recognize the importance of screen size and yes, I can see Apple loosing market share in premium range in Europe dramatically mainly because of screen size, but I see responsibility of Cook in a totally different light: he had most probably relied too much on Steve'S prediction. Steve's prediction here as wrong. Wouldn't be for the first time.  


     


    I would also say that Cook should foresee such problems and make plan B far back, supporting 3rd screen resolution format, which I find actually as mistake of the board and I am pretty much sure it had a lot to do with Forstall's demise.


     


    Still, I have no doubt Apple will come back with models that suit the market and I am pretty much sure they havbe learned the valuable lesson.

  • Reply 195 of 312
    smiffy31smiffy31 Posts: 202member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheElectricChairRepairman View Post

     

    Actually, swiping down from the entire screen space between the Dock and the top edge of screen activates the Spotlight search in iOS 7. That's about the same amount of space one would swipe right on iOS 6. Contextually and in terms of UI, it's actually more consistent. You'd swipe down similarly from that screen space to get search in Mail, Notes, Music app, Videos app, iTunes U (more or less), and similar apps where Search is not a prominent feature. Swipe down from middle of screen when you need to search in Spotlight instead of swiping right. You could still swipe down to from top edge of screen to get Notification Center while Spotlight is active. I dare say, it's actually better.

     

    I actually rarely swipe right for spotlight as a button press from the first page goes to spotlight.
    So I just press the button twice to get to spotlight.
    Does anyone know if this functionality is still present in iOS7 ?
  • Reply 196 of 312
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    poksi wrote: »
    Cook and perhaps many other (rivalry between Forstall and Ive has surely contributed as well) people and factors made the situation where Apple simply hasn't reacted properly to swift change of market perception. However, your perception, or better said black&white imaging of Steve and Tim is also wrong.

    Single screen size was clearly Steve's choice, I am pretty much sure he started to think like back in 80's about Mac, refusing expansion of product line. Crucial and perhaps most fateful decision was introduction of retina screen to 3.5" 4S. This has set the barrier for doubling the screen resolution format and follow Apple's logic of screen format computation very high. So high, that enlarging the screen size in 2012 was made almost impossible through "classical" Apple upgrade logic. 4" screen size was very much obvious emergency exit, act of buying time.

    I believe management found out that further doubling the dpi is very hard and useless and I strongly believe there is 3rd screen resolution platform on the way, I am pretty much sure Auto Layouts are not being pushed only for Dynamic Types, but also to accomodate different screen sizes, at least for some parts of applications.

    Yes, Apple has failed to recognize the importance of screen size and yes, I can see Apple loosing market share in premium range in Europe dramatically mainly because of screen size, but I see responsibility of Cook in a totally different light: he had most probably relied too much on Steve'S prediction. Steve's prediction here as wrong. Wouldn't be for the first time.  

    I would also say that Cook should foresee such problems and make plan B far back, supporting 3rd screen resolution format, which I find actually as mistake of the board and I am pretty much sure it had a lot to do with Forstall's demise.

    Still, I have no doubt Apple will come back with models that suit the market and I am pretty much sure they havbe learned the valuable lesson.
    I'd love to see the hard, factual evidence that Apple is in a world of hurt because the iPhone doesn't have a bigger screen. On the last earnings call Cook commented on how well the 4 and 4S were selling. The rumors we're hearing now is Samsung is cutting part orders because the S4 isn't selling as well as expected. I certainly won't be surprised if Apple does introduce a larger screen phone but I also think in some respects the S4s of the world are more of a fad and people will start demanding smaller sizes again. That's probably why you have the S4 mini and HTC doing a One mini.
  • Reply 197 of 312
    poksipoksi Posts: 482member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    I'd love to see the hard, factual evidence that Apple is in a world of hurt because the iPhone doesn't have a bigger screen. On the last earnings call Cook commented on how well the 4 and 4S were selling. The rumors we're hearing now is Samsung is cutting part orders because the S4 isn't selling as well as expected. I certainly won't be surprised if Apple does introduce a larger screen phone but I also think in some respects the S4s of the world are more of a fad and people will start demanding smaller sizes again. That's probably why you have the S4 mini and HTC doing a One mini.


     


    Well, I see no better evidence than selling numbers of S3 and S4. Knowing and seeing every day what kind of crap it is compared to iPhone I see no other strong reason for people to buy it except for the screen size. There are also some other competitors in premium class and they all have larger screen. Sales of iPhone is of course strong, but for other reasons. It' actually opposite: while Android competitors are selling mainly for the screen size, iPhone is NOT selling for the screen size, but mainly because of everything else. I predict Apple will release larger iPhone and you will see it will become better sold than 4" at once. Same as iPad mini over iPad.


     


    I may be wrong, but then, let me somebody explain the phenomena or relatively good selling of larger and also expensive android phones? Apple hater, people persuaded by some telco sales personnel and some other minor groups simply don't account for all of this sales...


     


     


    Furthermore, marketing and product roadmaps are not made on base of factual evidence. It is same about sales factors and influence. There is nothing hard about it, it is all about soft factors and predictions that count... 

  • Reply 198 of 312
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post





    I'd love to see the hard, factual evidence that Apple is in a world of hurt because the iPhone doesn't have a bigger screen. On the last earnings call Cook commented on how well the 4 and 4S were selling. The rumors we're hearing now is Samsung is cutting part orders because the S4 isn't selling as well as expected. I certainly won't be surprised if Apple does introduce a larger screen phone but I also think in some respects the S4s of the world are more of a fad and people will start demanding smaller sizes again. That's probably why you have the S4 mini and HTC doing a One mini.


    Apple is in the world of hurt because they're consuming 70% profit of the mobile phone market. I really want to be hurt like that everyday.


  • Reply 199 of 312
    poksipoksi Posts: 482member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by matrix07 View Post


    Apple is in the world of hurt because they're consuming 70% profit of the mobile phone market. I really want to be hurt like that everyday.




     


    Apple is not hurt. But this number is falling, of course. The problem is it is falling almost exclusively on account on one competitor. Competitor that has clearly worse products, no real DNA, but still taking over market share and profits share. Don't be naive and think Apple's management doesn't realize that and that they don't know they haven't responded properly. Yet. Product pipeline in the fall will confirm my words. 

  • Reply 200 of 312
    kdarlingkdarling Posts: 1,640member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by matrix07 View Post


    Apple is in the world of hurt because they're consuming 70% profit of the mobile phone market. I really want to be hurt like that everyday.




     


     


    For Q1 2013, Apple is down to 57%, with Samsung rising to 41%.


     


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