Gmail was never especially pretty, but the redesign and my experience in highly focused mobile apps have pushed me back to Apple's native apps. To me, the most

Gmail was never especially pretty, but the redesign and my experience in highly focused mobile apps have pushed me back to Apple's native apps. To me, the most important elements of the screen seem to pop out in Apple's apps, and settings and controls sit thoughtfully in the background. My eyes gravitate to the most salient elements of the screen - the mail list and the currently opened e-mail. The compose window literally pushes to the foreground; I find the effect focusing. You can hide screen elements you don't use! In Gmail I feel like every control demands my attention equally. Having a big red "compose" button might be nice for a novice, but it's irritating to me. I search my e-mails every now and then, but not nearly enough to justify the large search bar. Ditto with Gchat - MMS and Facebook have replaced IM as far as I'm concerned. The "Plus Bar" at the top of the screen is useless if you, you know, actually already have Google's Apps open most of the time (in which case clicking anything gives you an extraneous tab). Huge swathes of my screen are dedicated to things I barely use.