People used iTunes despite its terrible performance on Windows so they could sync their iPod and buy music on the iTunes music store. GIMP is arguably no more

People used iTunes despite its terrible performance on Windows so they could sync their iPod and buy music on the iTunes music store. GIMP is arguably no more complex than Photoshop, it's just badly designed. And the UX is inconsistent with the look and behavior of pretty much every other app on Mac/Windows. Popularity is the sum of a number of factors, and simplicity is just one of them. It may not even be the primary factor. I think we've had a bit of a reset, spearheaded by Apple, because bad UX got out of control, but phones are still gaining more features not less. We just have to make sure that the race for features doesn't get too far ahead of the UX teams having time to make it good.