11 ms·

Fertile Ground

326 points by mh_ 13y ago

jbail 13y ago
"iOS 7 is different. It isn’t just a new skin: it introduces entirely new navigational and structural standards..." Beyond the parallax effect, what are these new navigation and structural changes? I'm not trolling here, I'm genuinely curious. I'm about to build a new iOS app and I did not see major navigation or structural changes that would drastically affect how I design an app's UI or UX.
- greendestiny 13y ago
  There are is support for physics effects in the UI now, I'm not really sure what navigational changes he could be talking about though.
  - muncheax 13y ago
    There's a lot of awesome new multitasking and background stuff you can do now. It's a mix between the UI changes and the underlying parts that I think Marco is referring to.
  - Samuel_Michon 13y ago
    One change highlighted in the keynote presentation: instead of tapping the ‘Back’ button on the upper left corner of a UITableView layout, in iOS 7 you swipe horizontally from the left edge of the screen. There are many more changes, you can read about them in the new iOS 7 Human Interface Guidelines: http://www.slideshare.net/evgenybelyaev16/mobile-hig-22784587 http://www.slideshare.net/evgenybelyaev16/mobile-hig-2278458...
    - jbail 13y ago
      Excellent point on swiping horizontally instead of a "Back" button. That's a great change, but one I already try to incorporate as the dedicated header bar is (or was) distinctly iOS. If I'm building a cross-platform app (or have the intention of going cross-platform eventually), I try to steer clear of any interactions or UI elements that are too obviously from one platform or another. I really appreciate apps that have their own distinct look and feel which don't use "proprietary" UI features (like the header bar and back button). The most recent app that I've admired is Dots. It doesn't look Androidy or iOSy. It looks like it's own thing. The team behind that did a fantastic job.
      - RaphiePS 13y ago
        I agree that Dots is great, but it's a game--the UI is by nature specifically tailored to the application. If I'm using a news reader or productivity app, I hate having to spend time learning a novel interface. The more conventional the UI, the more easily and quickly I can use it. Unless uniqueness adds a tangible benefit, it's just a pain in the butt.
    - leoc 13y ago
      The Back buttons have to be one of the weakest elements of the current UI. I know from experience that less-computer-literate people are blind to them. We'll have to see how easily they pick up on the new conceit.
    - pshc 13y ago
      FWIW I'm using the iOS 7 beta, and this behavior is inconsistently present. It works in nested lists, but other screens e.g. the music Now Playing screen don't do it at all. Hopefully it gets OS-wide integration. But hey, it's a (really buggy!) beta.
      - DHowett 13y ago
        Of particular hilarity is that swiping left-to-right on the Now Playing screen did in fact do this on prior versions.
      - gurkendoktor 13y ago
        iOS 6 added a swipe gesture on all navigation bar back buttons, and even in 6.1.4 it doesn't work in Apple's Messages out of all apps. I would be surprised if this new gesture ended up working consistently.
  - jimmaswell 13y ago
    Physics effects? Momentum, acceleration, doing work, wave-particle duality? What's that supposed to mean?
    - wahnfrieden 13y ago
      Youre probably just being obtuse, but: he just means the principle of things coming from somewhere or going to somewhere, as someone once put it. Reinforcing conceptual relationships via physical movement and manipulation that mirrors how things may behave in the physical world, to some degree. See zoom-in/swim-into interfaces, or the way screens transition rather than just blink into view, etc.
      - jimmaswell 13y ago
        I much prefer my screens to just blink into view.
        wahnfrieden 13y ago
        That's cool.
- bennyg 13y ago
  SpriteKit is going to be huge. Expect about a year of getting developers ready with it, and good at it, then Apple TV may have something awesome for us.
  - greendestiny 13y ago
    Interesting suggestion - I was surprised to see such a direct competitor to cocos2d, and despite the development budget of Apple I'm a little skeptical of their commitment to building a game engine. Maybe it'll form the basis of a better set of game engines. I'm definitely skeptical of their physics engine over Box2D.
  - Kiro 13y ago
    What's SpriteKit? Sugar Cube Software's Cocoa Sprite Kit? How is it related to iOS7?
    - smackfu 13y ago
      No, it's a new iOS 7 / OS X framework. Since it's an API, I think the only real discussion is in the developer docs, which are NDA'd.
  - archagon 13y ago
    Compared to Cocos2d, I'm not that interested in Sprite Kit as a framework. But combined with the new gamepad APIs, I think you might be on to something in regards to the Apple TV.
  - smackfu 13y ago
    Games tend to be the most likely apps to be ported between systems, so the appeal of a single OS API seems limited to me.
- newhouseb 13y ago
  Yeah, I think this is somewhat of an overstatement. UINavigationController? Still there. UITabBar? Still there. UIHamburgerController? Not there. Another radically different way to organize UIViewControllers? Nope. That being said, there are a few new things that do stand out: 1) Everything is supposed to be fullscreen as often as possible, with the chrome hiding as much as possible. "Deference to content." 2) Transitioning between view controllers should ideally "zoom" in to new content. Like the calendar app zooming into a day view from a month view or a year's worth of photos zooming into a collection of chronological "collections." In other words, your transitions should communicate _how_ the view controllers relate more than just you're replacing one with another. 3) Text Everywhere. (only new on iOS) 4) More abstract but also more physical (read: mimicking the laws of nature, like physics, rather than mimicking things humans have made, read: skeuomorphism)
mamcx 13y ago
And how that fit for non-standar UIs?
cromwellian 13y ago
Fragmentation :)
Breefield 13y ago
I felt this way after IOS started to flourish in 2008-2009. "Why didn't I start building iPhone apps back then." Now IOS7, and Marco saying this, I can anticipate the same sensation if I don't hop onboard after this refresh.
jmduke 13y ago
Another point that I think has been understated thus far: Android, WP, and iPhone's visual philosophies are closer now than ever before. I can only assume this will lead to fewer "ecosystem-exclusive" apps, which I think is a net positive for everyone.
- mehrzad 13y ago
  I keep hearing about these similarities, but most seem superficial/only visual. How menu/table UI systems work aren't necessarily similar. How does that help apps get on every system?
- gbog 13y ago
  You give way too much importance to the visual part, the reason for some apps to be ecosystem exclusive are technical or legal limitations. Writing this on a rooted Android phone with third party keyboard, through a vpn...
kunai 13y ago
iOS 7 is in many ways a new beginning for both Apple, its users, and its developers, but I think the OA is relying a bit too much on hyperbole. In the DP, there weren't really too many navigational changes, and the UI was still instantly familiar. Yes, there are new APIs and other neat fancy rendering stuff, and you can't discount the influence of the application's look and feel, but... it didn't feel very different, at least with regards to an experience perspective. It looks markedly better (apart from about 5-6 odd-looking icons on the home screen), and designing around that will perhaps be the most daunting challenge. It will separate the best from the worst, however, and this beginning, this chance to start fresh, is what I look forward to.
idbentley 13y ago
This is ridiculous. One uninnovative developer getting excited about fewer choices and lower quality in iOS application.
- pazimzadeh 13y ago
  You're ridiculous, and I predict that Marco will be laughing his way to the bank. Let's revisit this in say December or Spring of next year, shall we?
  - gwern 13y ago
    > getting excited about fewer choices and lower quality > laughing his way to the bank Error: type mismatch identified.
    - pazimzadeh 13y ago
      What users need is not more choice; as Marco said, the App Store is crowded. What users need is higher quality apps, which iOS 7 will purportedly enable. Therefore, developers who take advantage of this opportunity will make more money than those who don't. I am using the beta on my primary phone, and I am starting to see what Marco is talking about.
      - sillysaurus 13y ago
        There's a fallacy in your reasoning: that quality wins. This isn't always true. Word of mouth is a much more powerful force than raw quality. Look at eBay, for example. Most apps luckily don't have many network effects. But I won't be switching PDF readers just because the new one looks more like iOS 7.
        pazimzadeh 13y ago
        I agree with you, although I think that Apple is betting that "looks more like iOS 7" is more like "works better thanks to features only available in iOS 7". See this tweet by @flyosity: "Damn, the UIKit animation/dynamics effects in iOS 7 are some seriously futuristic stuff. Can't wait to see what people do with it." https://twitter.com/flyosity/status/344642697241436160 https://twitter.com/flyosity/status/344642697241436160
btipling 13y ago
It seems hypocritical to laud fragmentation when it happens in iOS and decry it in Android. These changes seem similar to the Android differences in gingerbread and post-honeycomb. The resulting effect on developers will be the same. iOS 7 has made it apparent which bloggers are unable or unwilling to be fair in their criticism when it comes to Apple. The mismatched gradients on the new icons are beautiful to them, the wire frame and confusing UI elements are revolutionary, and fragmentation is simply just creating fertile ground for change. Great.
- thisisdallas 13y ago
  This is a very a good point. As a major Apple fan I completely agree with you. After looking over the iOS changes I see absolutely nothing that is more "revolutionary" than what we have now in iOS6, or even what Android and Windows Phone offers. At best, it looks like iOS7 is nothing more than a mix of Android and Windows Phone plus a few extra UI elements. I am not a big fan of Marco's obsession with drama but I do respect his opinion and find his take on certain thing within the tech industry enlightening. Unfortunately, this post does seem like nothing more than turning a blind eye to what Apple has done with iOS7.
  - btipling 13y ago
    I'm also an Apple fan. I love my Macbook Pro Retina, it's the best computer I've ever owned. Being a fan of a company shouldn't blind you to their missteps when they happen though. It shouldn't lead to unfair application of criticism.
    - sbuk 13y ago
      You're absolutely right. Much of the caterwauling hasn't been fair though. This isn't a final release we are discussing. It a beta. It's a redesign that has been on the boards for less than 7 months, and it looks that way. Does it need more work? Yes, absolutely. I don't thing a single engineer or designe at Apple is sitting back in their chair and thinking "job done". What it is is an interesting direction. Accusations of 'missteps' are off the mark. It's difficult to have a sensible discussion as the signal-to-noise in any Apple discussion is just awful. Criticism is good, however most are utterly incapable of doing so constructively, which is plainly bad.
Negitivefrags 13y ago
Unless Apple has significantly improved new app discovery on the App Store, I don't think we are going to see any changes. The algorithms that apple uses for the top lists promote established players, the search functions suck, and the interface for scrolling through lists of apps are so slow and clunky that it discourages users from exploring beyond the first 5-6 results in any list.
SwellJoe 13y ago
I don't think this is going to play out this way. Look to other operating systems that evolved their UI in similar fashion and a few of their dominant software players over the years: Windows-Office, Quickbooks, Quicken, IE/Chrome/Firefox/Netscape (which have shifted favor over years, but not because of UI changes in the OS) Mac OS (X and classic)-Adobe PS, Illustrator, ProTools, Office UI changes, even major ones, have had little to no effect on the dominant software titles for those systems. There have occasionally been new categories of software introduced. For instance, high quality video editing software for the home market, which was made possible by better home cameras and major advances in speed and resources of home computers. Pervasive internet allowed the browser wars to happen. It wasn't minor UI changes in the OS that allowed new players to come onto the scene, it was major technological advances. If you go back far enough, you can argue that the change from command line to GUI allowed for just such a revolution described (it definitely did: Wordstar/Wordperfect lost to Word, Lotus lost to Excel, AutoCad nearly lost its throne, etc.). But, nobody in their right mind is arguing that iOS 6 to iOS 7 is the difference between DOS and Windows 3.1 or between an Apple IIe and Lisa or the first Macintosh. History isn't always the best indicator in the tech industry, but in absence of other indicators, I'll bet on history repeating in some form.
- MichaelGG 13y ago
  The chrome around something like Photoshop is a small part of the entire experience, and unlikely to change a purchase decision. This is not true for many smartphone apps, where the look and feel is one of the key features and selection criteria. Apps that don't update will feel crappy and old and that'll put them at a major disadvantage. This will be a chance to catch any "lazy" dominant apps if they don't upgrade soon enough. I'm not sure if there are any dominant players that are lazy - seems like you'd need to keep on your toes if you're gonna stay dominant. So not a whole lot might change, anyways.
- egypturnash 13y ago
  There were some notable changes in the Classic-to-X change. Quark XPress replaced by InDesign, BBEdit replaced by TextMate. Probably a few others, too. Adobe's tools stood unchanged in the X switch, in no small part because they got X versions out pretty quickly that felt relatively at home. Quark, IIRC, took forever to make an X version, so Adobe was able to bring out an X page layout app and eat their lunch. Of course, it didn't hurt that everyone pretty much loathed XPress, especially its heaviest users...
bitops 13y ago
I hope I'm not in some crazy minority here, but I actually value stability and UIs not changing radically all the time. I feel like there's a craze afoot at the moment to "redesign everything all the time" and I'm not a big fan of it. If you're in tech, sure, it's the "price of progress" but for the lay user (i.e. the people who pay us money for software) it's just annoying.
- kunai 13y ago
  I'm in the same minority as you, but you can't deny that iOS 7 was a necessary change, and not one just for the sake of it.
  - fpgeek 13y ago
    Just because a change was necessary doesn't mean this change was necessary. I'm still flabbergasted that Apple did their big overhaul (apparently) without addressing inter-application communication, default apps, Siri APIs or most of the other "power user" issues that would have helped them grow their computing paradigm. To me, increasing the scope and power of iOS devices while maintaining the predictability and control that are at the heart of Apple's take on mobile/touch-based computing is the problem Apple has to solve over the next few years. Judging from what I've heard about iOS 7, it sounds like Apple couldn't disagree more.
- smacktoward 13y ago
  That was my thought too. I'm a bit agog at seeing a developer lauding a platform owner for burning down the platform. If you're going to invest time and money in a platform, the last thing you want is to find out after that investment has been sunk that the platform steward likes to periodically smash everything. Marco argues that while this behavior is bad for incumbents, it's good for new entrants, but that doesn't make any sense; if you're a new entrant, your goal over the long term is to become an incumbent. Blowing everything up may benefit you today, but if you survive long enough to see the next demolition spree, then you'll be the one getting 'sploded. It's like arguing that living next to a volcano is good for development because it periodically clears out old building stock. A good platform is one you can build a business on. Sudden, dramatic change that flushes your investment to date down the toilet is bad for business.
kcoop 13y ago
So says the guy that just sold all his legacy apps.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  Money where his mouth is? Although it would seem unlikely unless he had a prior glimpse of what was coming. Is this that unlikely?
  - ruswick 13y ago
    Although he wasn't aware of the exact details or extent of the changes, rumors of a total overhaul have been circulating for months. He probably anticipated having to input hundreds if not thousands of hours of development time to prepare for iOS 7. At the very least, this must have been a factor in his decisions.
- ja27 13y ago
  After seeing how mine look in the (hopefully very beta) iOS 7, I'm ready to sell half of mine rather than deal with UI updates.
Steko 13y ago
There's a huge tendency for designers to overstate the importance of "looking modern" as an actual end. A lot of people honestly wouldn't care if the buttons on their phone were modelled to look like 3d photorealistic rainbow poop. The designers tell them they don't need cases but they all buy the most garish hideous cases to say nothing of the bedazzler people. Sign me up as skeptical re: the coming app store revolution.
foobarbazqux 13y ago
> Fertile Ground I'm getting pretty tired of blog post titles that give no real hint at all as to the topic. My mind labels them as "pretentious" because they're pretending to be deep when they're not; by that I mean that rarely do the posts offer up any kind of non-trivial insight. (Compare with PG's similarly titled essays.) Earlier today we had "Two i's" from DHH's crew (where you had to infer from reading the post that it was i for interesting and i for important). Dustin Curtis recently had "Glass". Please, you will still be the coolest people on the planet if you don't try to title your posts per the ineffable style of Apple product advertisements, and as a bonus we will even like you and your work a little bit more.
- pazimzadeh 13y ago
  I disagree that the title "Fertile Ground" gave no hint to the topic, but I agree about "Two i's".
  - foobarbazqux 13y ago
    I was only complaining because I literally had no idea whatsoever that it was about Apple, never mind iOS 7, and I wouldn't have opened the link if I had known that. Is "Apple's iOS 7 is Fertile Ground" really that atrocious? I can understand how given the context of WWDC yesterday it might be more obvious, and that there is an argument for treating blog posts as ephemera, but in general I like it when things can maintain their meaning for months, years, or indefinitely.
- ghshephard 13y ago
  You would, of course, prefer something like, "iOS 7 reset creates new opportunities for Developers" or "iOS reboot creates conditions ripe for disruption" or, .... Honestly - "Fertile Ground" is a pretty damn good title. I can already imagine people casually discussing it at WWDC "Did you catch Marco's "Fertile Ground" post?"
  - foobarbazqux 13y ago
    I would be happy with "Apple's iOS 7 is Fertile Ground", "Hands-On with Google Glass", and "Two I's for Productivity: Interesting and Important Tasks". Of course, these have all lost their Zen master cachet, but for me that's a distinct advantage. Good writing doesn't need to be cool.
tolmasky 13y ago
Yay change for change's sake. This is exactly the wrong attitude in my opinion. How does it help users to all of a sudden have most apps feel ancient? Is it really something to be proud of? That for the next year we'll be working on replacing existing utilities so that they feel "right" and "fresh" instead of doing what we should be doing: thinking of actual new software that is worthwhile to write. I've been saying this for a while but I think what is happening, and what many developers haven't noticed yet, is that we have exhausted the utility of software for software's sake. The interesting stuff happening in mobile now has nothing to do with "design" in the traditional sense any more. Its not enough to just have a coder and a designer on the team. The really cool stuff is all about what your phone actually allows you to do in the real world. Look at apps like uber, postmates, spotify, and twitch.tv. Most of these have terrible UI's, but that's not the point. The point is that they allow you to do things. I can have a car on my doorstep! I can listen to almost any song I want. They're not just another calculator app or news reader, so who cares if its not the prettiest or easiest thing to use in the world. They are an interface to actually useful services. Software was interesting on its own a decade ago, but the industry has grown up, its time to do things now. That doesn't mean that "UI and UX" don't matter, it just means their definition changes and grows beyond just how you tap things on glass and what pixels you choose to animate. The reason that iOS 7 seems comforting in the way its described in this article is because it gives developers who haven't realized this something to do again. Marco is absolutely right, for a long time it has felt like all the major categories have been covered on the app store. That's a good thing! It means we've solved lots of problems. We shouldn't daydream of a day when those problems get artificially unsolved so we can have another shot at them. We should move on.
- mchanson 13y ago
  Cause, like, I still use Visicalc and it works great.
- ben336 13y ago
  I think Marco is saying this is good from an independent ios developers perspective, not necessarily from a users perspective. As somebody who makes his living as an independent app developer, I'm sure he's thrilled about this. Its undeniably an opportunity for independent developers who don't have to maintain an existing app. Whether its good for users or the ecosystem in general is a totally different discussion.
bcl 13y ago
This is wrong. The vast majority don't want their OS (whether it is phone, desktop, laptop, etc.) to suddenly change. They want stability. They have invested the time and effort to learn the UI and integrate it into their lives, change disrupts this and wastes their time. If you force them into learning a new way to do things you have just reduced the friction of them switching to some other platform. And that's how you lose customers.
- bennyg 13y ago
  It's honestly not that different. Messaging is just as easy as before. Using Calendar is just as easy as before. All of the apps that aren't Apple's are the exact same and will be for the beginning of the official release. You underestimate people and their ability to adapt to change.
cheald 13y ago
So when Android is fragmented, it is awful and is the reason the platform sucks. When iOS is fragmented, it's innovative and fresh, masterfully executed to bring new opportunities to developers. Got it.
- ghshephard 13y ago
  Android Fragmentation is a problem because what version do you write your application for? 2.3? 4.0? Ideally 4.1/4.2, but that will miss 70% of your market who CAN'T upgrade because their Telco is not offering 4.1/4.2. Not because their hardware can't support it. Anybody on an iPhone 4, 4S, or 5 who wants an iOS 7 app, can have it within a day of the iOS 7 release. The downside of offering only one major phone a year, is that you don't occupy much shelf space in a best buy/AT&T - and someone casually looking for a phone, instead of a particular phone, is 90% unlikely to chose you. The upside, is that when you offer a new OS - everyone gets to upgrade. That's the Android fragmentation issue.
  - cheald 13y ago
    No, you write for the minimum API level your app requires. In a lot of cases, this is 2.3.3! If you want to target a wide audience and still use some 3.0/4.0 features, there are nifty polyfills available, too. Google is further improving this by extracting many of the super useful APIs out into a version-agnostic package that is updated independent of carrier say-so. Your API level 10 apps will run quite happily on Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and JB devices. Furthermore, Google supports multiple APK deployments, so you can actually build your application with different features for different API levels, and publish them under the same entry in the Play store; each device is routed to the proper APK. However, despite all of this, you are talking about the exact same thing that Marco is. He says you "ideally" want to target iOS7, but you can't afford to do so if it means cutting out your iOS6 users. His conjecture is that since the established players are stuck on iOS6 (Gingerbread), the up-and-comers will have a shot to disrupt the market among the iOS7 (Jelly Bean) users. The assertion, flat out, is that "the big players being unable to upgrade their iOS6 software to meet iOS7 standards due to legacy support requirements is good for the app ecosystem", which is a pure RDF spin on the whole fragmentation issue that the Apple ecosystem loves talking about so much.
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kevincrane 13y ago
I've seen this in several places, but when people say Apple "changed everything about how use it" in this version of iOS, what did they actually change? The only big things I've seen with regards to the OS seem to be the flat iconography and the pull-up menu from the bottom that has the setting changes. Everything else looked approximately identical functionally (at first glance anyway).
- hrabago 13y ago
  There are changes, for instance, about how multitasking works, that an application can take advantage of. If one app doesn't take advantage of it, and another does, I may use one over the other more often. For instance, there was an app that used Push Notification and the Icon Badge to show the current temperature, and for a time I used that over The Weather Channel's app. Small things like this creates opportunities, this is what Marco was saying.
drpancake 13y ago
I disagree with the significance being given to these UI changes. Many App Store niches are dominated by incredibly ugly apps that are functional and get the job done. Take a look at WhatsApp for a prime example.
kenjackson 13y ago
Fertile ground is Google Glass, the new Kinect sensor, 3d printing, etc... There are so many more interesting targets, I hope we don't focus our best on new skins for flashlight apps.
- hi2usir 13y ago
  Don't forget the iAds with your flashlight app.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Flashlight is built into the iOS 7 control panel. Innovation FTW ;)
coderguy123 13y ago
How can this be sustainable? all this fragmentation/versions - iOS new >=7 and <7, all different versions of android, windows 8 metro etc etc. how many different platform specific versions are these service providers like say pandora suppose to create? I feel like unless the app is taking advantage of some inherent hardware capability of the phone/tablet everything should eventually be HTML5.
- hrabago 13y ago
  Your example illustrates what Marco is saying. A big player that needs to support all those different versions of different platforms may take more time updating their iOS app to adapt the latest standards. An indie developer, who has more agility and can choose to only support iOS 7, now has a possible advantage, if s/he chooses to take advantage of it.
ianstallings 13y ago
I've faced it in other platforms and it's easily overcome with software patterns that you should already be using. If you have a good separations of concerns and the UI is truly decoupled from your logic and models you should not be having any issues. If you don't already have that use this time to refactor and move forward. Some things won't be possible across both platforms. Find those now and address them first.
jusben1369 13y ago
Aren't the well/better funded dev shops and apps going to more easily make the transition? Won't the smaller ones feel the pain of backward/multi version support more acutely? Didn't we just empower the status quo? True there'll be net new revs with no legacy issues but not sure how game changing that is.
jared314 13y ago
You have to be fast to pick up nickels in front of a steamroller. There is some money in porting something between the old and the new playing field, but the incumbents will eventually update.
- hrabago 13y ago
  That's where the opportunity is. If "eventually" is six months, then you have six months to make your mark. By then, if you play your cards right and/or you get lucky, you can get in a good position and try to hold it, which you may not have had the chance before.
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jeffpersonified 13y ago
I've been a rails developer for a while now, and contemplating whether or not to focus my energies on a js frontend framework or learning iOS. I think this post was all I needed to make a decision. Thanks Marco.
mwfunk 13y ago
I'm not sure how a new OS update that changes more things than usual is fragmentation, especially when that OS has a very small number of devices that it runs on and a user base that by and large quickly updates to the new releases. It might be more of a disruptive update than usual, it might be good or bad for users in the short term, it might be good or bad for developers in the short term, but it's not fragmentation.
shinratdr 13y ago
In case you've ever wondered why Marco frequently dismisses the Hacker News community, the comments on this article are a fantastic example. Never has "give it five minute" been more apt.
Samuel_Michon 13y ago
I noticed something curious on page 10 of Apple’s iOS 7 Transition Guide[1], in the section “Things Every App Should Do”: ”Examine your app for hard-coded UI values – such as sizes and positions – and replace them with those you derive dynamically from system-provided values. Use Auto Layout to help your app respond when layout changes are required.” Now, I may be reading too much into this, but the use of the word ‘when’ sounds to me like Apple is preparing products with other resolutions than are on the current iOS devices. I think there would be a market for a budget iPhone with a smaller screen, and a high-end iPad with a larger screen. Also, the icon size for apps is different in iOS 7. It’s going up from 114x114 to 120x120. [1] http://es.slideshare.net/evgenybelyaev16/transition-guide http://es.slideshare.net/evgenybelyaev16/transition-guide
- smackfu 13y ago
  This could also be related to iOS 7 having a system-level font size setting.
ojbyrne 13y ago
Or, in the six months before the new shiny iOS appears, every single dominant or near-dominant application on the app store decides that it makes more sense for them to build a version that targets the other ecosystem.
mangoman 13y ago
As a developer who hasn't published an app in the iOS App store, I love the point that Marco's making. One of my biggest biggest hesitations in developing an iOS application has been, how the hell can I differentiate myself? By being one of the first iOS 7 apps! I don't have to have some crazy sense of design, or think too hard about what gradients I use, since my app will stand out from the start. I think that's one of the main points in the argument. As a developer who has friends who have developed "non-trivial" iOS apps, damn. This is pretty spot on exactly what happened (happening still even) on Android with pre/post 3.0 applications. Making sure that the UI works on both categories of devices is just awful. There are a few projects out there to help (ActionBarSherlock, HoloEverywhere), but it takes a lot of diligence, ESPECIALLY if you're trying to do combination tablet and phone apps. A lot of the posts I've read on this thread are missing the point of the post. It's not just about change, its not about fragmentation, its about the excitement for newcomers to join an ecosystem that has felt super saturated for years. It may not actually shake the foundation of the app store, but it at least allows for new talent to enter on the same playing field as those who have been developing iOS applications for years. That's just exciting.
chj 13y ago
Every disaster is opportunity. In the case of iOS 7, the opportunity belongs to Android and windows.
gaving 13y ago
Can't help but think the Vesper guys wished they had waited until next year.
csomar 13y ago
1. Given Apple history of screwing developers, I doubt they are doing it for developers. 2. It's my opinion. I think the hybrid new design is much worse than the old one. I like the old design. It's different and not old. 3. How is starting from scratch is good for users? Remember, we are here for users and not developers. Also, there are lots of apps not affected by this change: games and apps with their own UI just come to my mind.
buro9 13y ago
Good design is long-lasting - #7 of Dieter Rams ten principles of good design. I wonder how many app designers will realise that the apps they produced were subject to the fashion of the design of the operating system, and now that the fashion and trend has moved, whether the app designers will be confident enough to apply their own timeless design. The iOS7 colour palette and style is fresh and new (to iOS users), but it is just the next fashion, and as fresh and new as it feels today, it will feel equally old and stale (like iOS6) at some point in the future. Good design is long-lasting. App designers should concentrate on getting their design right for their application, and not just follow the trend and wear the attire of the operating system. Marco is right that when the fashion changes, those who cannot keep up with fashion leave a large opportunity for those who can. I also agree that there is also a lot of money to be made by being one of those who can follow fashion closely. But from a design perspective... those who follow others (the operating system) rather than having the courage to lead (the right design for the app), will always be subject to vulnerability when the fashion changes.
modernerd 13y ago
Thousands of developers will be perfectly happy to drop iOS 5 and 6 support and remodel their apps for iOS 7 – myself included – because: a. The new APIs and Xcode look lovely to work with. b. Dropping support for iPhone 3G and 3GS devices four years after they were released doesn't feel unreasonable. c. Apple has a long history of featuring apps that use their latest APIs. Having your app featured is still the only reasonable hope to make money in the App Store, unless your business model revolves around selling Smurfberries. d. Many developers will have been holding back from making major app changes because they were waiting to see how iOS 7 would change the design language. Now that they know, they can spend the Summer redesigning. e. Apple are openly inviting developers to "reimagine your apps on iOS 7" - that's the language they've used in their developer emails. f. A successful developer with a widely read blog has just come out and said that everyone who drops support for older iOS versions to build afresh on top of iOS 7 stands to gain a lot. So there will probably be a huge host of "new, nimble" apps with new takes on tired old setups come Autumn. But I bet a lot of torch app developers are feeling very hard done by.
nadam 13y ago
"Most can’t afford to write two separate interfaces. (It’s a terrible idea anyway.)" Why? If the newcomers can afford to write an interface for iOS7, the established players also can. If there is money in it for newcomers, there is money in it for established players too. This article assumes that established players are dumb. They will estimate how users adopt iOS7 over time, and act accordingly.
- smackfu 13y ago
  I think it assumes that established players are conservative, not dumb. They will do the least effort necessary to make their app look good in iOS 7, at least at first.
mbq 13y ago
This is precisely why I think modern approach to software UX and design is crazy. Like 15 years ago, in the Windows hegemony every sane designer was heavily relying on widgets, metaphors and flow defined by the system and MS could almost flawlessly upgrade the look of the entire ecosystem with XP's Luna. And without breaking the user experience. Now everybody is looking for some virtual perfection in a different place and the user gets an awful, inconsistent, non-customizable and anti-interoperable clutter. WHY?
programminggeek 13y ago
Apple is one of the companies that can really get away with an en-masse OS transition simply because they are basically guaranteed to get 80% on board in less than 6 months simply because they control the distribution mechanism and the device hardware itself. They can plan for these transitions. Google and to a lesser extent Microsoft screwed up and are struggling to be able to keep their users on the latest and greatest. This is such a huge advantage for Apple that it can't be overstated. On Android at least 36% of devices are still running Gingerbread (which is 2.5 years old). Android 4.x is finally up over 50% after being out for just over a year and a half. So, whenever Google gets around to Android 5.0, it will probably be a whole year later (or more) before that is the mainstream targetable version of Android. As a developer, you could argue this gives you more time to get around to building against the new api's, but at the same time that's remarkably slow user uptake compared to iOS.

326 points by mh_ 13y ago

jbail 13y ago

"iOS 7 is different. It isn’t just a new skin: it introduces entirely new navigational and structural standards..." Beyond the parallax effect, what are these new navigation and structural changes? I'm not trolling here, I'm genuinely curious. I'm about to build a new iOS app and I did not see major navigation or structural changes that would drastically affect how I design an app's UI or UX.

greendestiny 13y ago
There are is support for physics effects in the UI now, I'm not really sure what navigational changes he could be talking about though.
- muncheax 13y ago
  There's a lot of awesome new multitasking and background stuff you can do now. It's a mix between the UI changes and the underlying parts that I think Marco is referring to.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  One change highlighted in the keynote presentation: instead of tapping the ‘Back’ button on the upper left corner of a UITableView layout, in iOS 7 you swipe horizontally from the left edge of the screen. There are many more changes, you can read about them in the new iOS 7 Human Interface Guidelines: http://www.slideshare.net/evgenybelyaev16/mobile-hig-22784587 http://www.slideshare.net/evgenybelyaev16/mobile-hig-2278458...
  - jbail 13y ago
    Excellent point on swiping horizontally instead of a "Back" button. That's a great change, but one I already try to incorporate as the dedicated header bar is (or was) distinctly iOS. If I'm building a cross-platform app (or have the intention of going cross-platform eventually), I try to steer clear of any interactions or UI elements that are too obviously from one platform or another. I really appreciate apps that have their own distinct look and feel which don't use "proprietary" UI features (like the header bar and back button). The most recent app that I've admired is Dots. It doesn't look Androidy or iOSy. It looks like it's own thing. The team behind that did a fantastic job.
    - RaphiePS 13y ago
      I agree that Dots is great, but it's a game--the UI is by nature specifically tailored to the application. If I'm using a news reader or productivity app, I hate having to spend time learning a novel interface. The more conventional the UI, the more easily and quickly I can use it. Unless uniqueness adds a tangible benefit, it's just a pain in the butt.
  - leoc 13y ago
    The Back buttons have to be one of the weakest elements of the current UI. I know from experience that less-computer-literate people are blind to them. We'll have to see how easily they pick up on the new conceit.
  - pshc 13y ago
    FWIW I'm using the iOS 7 beta, and this behavior is inconsistently present. It works in nested lists, but other screens e.g. the music Now Playing screen don't do it at all. Hopefully it gets OS-wide integration. But hey, it's a (really buggy!) beta.
    - DHowett 13y ago
      Of particular hilarity is that swiping left-to-right on the Now Playing screen did in fact do this on prior versions.
    - gurkendoktor 13y ago
      iOS 6 added a swipe gesture on all navigation bar back buttons, and even in 6.1.4 it doesn't work in Apple's Messages out of all apps. I would be surprised if this new gesture ended up working consistently.
- jimmaswell 13y ago
  Physics effects? Momentum, acceleration, doing work, wave-particle duality? What's that supposed to mean?
  - wahnfrieden 13y ago
    Youre probably just being obtuse, but: he just means the principle of things coming from somewhere or going to somewhere, as someone once put it. Reinforcing conceptual relationships via physical movement and manipulation that mirrors how things may behave in the physical world, to some degree. See zoom-in/swim-into interfaces, or the way screens transition rather than just blink into view, etc.
    - jimmaswell 13y ago
      I much prefer my screens to just blink into view.
      - wahnfrieden 13y ago
        That's cool.
bennyg 13y ago
SpriteKit is going to be huge. Expect about a year of getting developers ready with it, and good at it, then Apple TV may have something awesome for us.
- greendestiny 13y ago
  Interesting suggestion - I was surprised to see such a direct competitor to cocos2d, and despite the development budget of Apple I'm a little skeptical of their commitment to building a game engine. Maybe it'll form the basis of a better set of game engines. I'm definitely skeptical of their physics engine over Box2D.
- Kiro 13y ago
  What's SpriteKit? Sugar Cube Software's Cocoa Sprite Kit? How is it related to iOS7?
  - smackfu 13y ago
    No, it's a new iOS 7 / OS X framework. Since it's an API, I think the only real discussion is in the developer docs, which are NDA'd.
- archagon 13y ago
  Compared to Cocos2d, I'm not that interested in Sprite Kit as a framework. But combined with the new gamepad APIs, I think you might be on to something in regards to the Apple TV.
- smackfu 13y ago
  Games tend to be the most likely apps to be ported between systems, so the appeal of a single OS API seems limited to me.
newhouseb 13y ago
Yeah, I think this is somewhat of an overstatement. UINavigationController? Still there. UITabBar? Still there. UIHamburgerController? Not there. Another radically different way to organize UIViewControllers? Nope. That being said, there are a few new things that do stand out: 1) Everything is supposed to be fullscreen as often as possible, with the chrome hiding as much as possible. "Deference to content." 2) Transitioning between view controllers should ideally "zoom" in to new content. Like the calendar app zooming into a day view from a month view or a year's worth of photos zooming into a collection of chronological "collections." In other words, your transitions should communicate _how_ the view controllers relate more than just you're replacing one with another. 3) Text Everywhere. (only new on iOS) 4) More abstract but also more physical (read: mimicking the laws of nature, like physics, rather than mimicking things humans have made, read: skeuomorphism)

mamcx 13y ago

And how that fit for non-standar UIs?

cromwellian 13y ago

Fragmentation :)

Breefield 13y ago

I felt this way after IOS started to flourish in 2008-2009. "Why didn't I start building iPhone apps back then." Now IOS7, and Marco saying this, I can anticipate the same sensation if I don't hop onboard after this refresh.

jmduke 13y ago

Another point that I think has been understated thus far: Android, WP, and iPhone's visual philosophies are closer now than ever before. I can only assume this will lead to fewer "ecosystem-exclusive" apps, which I think is a net positive for everyone.

mehrzad 13y ago
I keep hearing about these similarities, but most seem superficial/only visual. How menu/table UI systems work aren't necessarily similar. How does that help apps get on every system?
gbog 13y ago
You give way too much importance to the visual part, the reason for some apps to be ecosystem exclusive are technical or legal limitations. Writing this on a rooted Android phone with third party keyboard, through a vpn...

kunai 13y ago

iOS 7 is in many ways a new beginning for both Apple, its users, and its developers, but I think the OA is relying a bit too much on hyperbole. In the DP, there weren't really too many navigational changes, and the UI was still instantly familiar. Yes, there are new APIs and other neat fancy rendering stuff, and you can't discount the influence of the application's look and feel, but... it didn't feel very different, at least with regards to an experience perspective. It looks markedly better (apart from about 5-6 odd-looking icons on the home screen), and designing around that will perhaps be the most daunting challenge. It will separate the best from the worst, however, and this beginning, this chance to start fresh, is what I look forward to.

idbentley 13y ago

This is ridiculous. One uninnovative developer getting excited about fewer choices and lower quality in iOS application.

pazimzadeh 13y ago
You're ridiculous, and I predict that Marco will be laughing his way to the bank. Let's revisit this in say December or Spring of next year, shall we?
- gwern 13y ago
  > getting excited about fewer choices and lower quality > laughing his way to the bank Error: type mismatch identified.
  - pazimzadeh 13y ago
    What users need is not more choice; as Marco said, the App Store is crowded. What users need is higher quality apps, which iOS 7 will purportedly enable. Therefore, developers who take advantage of this opportunity will make more money than those who don't. I am using the beta on my primary phone, and I am starting to see what Marco is talking about.
    - sillysaurus 13y ago
      There's a fallacy in your reasoning: that quality wins. This isn't always true. Word of mouth is a much more powerful force than raw quality. Look at eBay, for example. Most apps luckily don't have many network effects. But I won't be switching PDF readers just because the new one looks more like iOS 7.
      - pazimzadeh 13y ago
        I agree with you, although I think that Apple is betting that "looks more like iOS 7" is more like "works better thanks to features only available in iOS 7". See this tweet by @flyosity: "Damn, the UIKit animation/dynamics effects in iOS 7 are some seriously futuristic stuff. Can't wait to see what people do with it." https://twitter.com/flyosity/status/344642697241436160 https://twitter.com/flyosity/status/344642697241436160

btipling 13y ago

It seems hypocritical to laud fragmentation when it happens in iOS and decry it in Android. These changes seem similar to the Android differences in gingerbread and post-honeycomb. The resulting effect on developers will be the same. iOS 7 has made it apparent which bloggers are unable or unwilling to be fair in their criticism when it comes to Apple. The mismatched gradients on the new icons are beautiful to them, the wire frame and confusing UI elements are revolutionary, and fragmentation is simply just creating fertile ground for change. Great.

thisisdallas 13y ago
This is a very a good point. As a major Apple fan I completely agree with you. After looking over the iOS changes I see absolutely nothing that is more "revolutionary" than what we have now in iOS6, or even what Android and Windows Phone offers. At best, it looks like iOS7 is nothing more than a mix of Android and Windows Phone plus a few extra UI elements. I am not a big fan of Marco's obsession with drama but I do respect his opinion and find his take on certain thing within the tech industry enlightening. Unfortunately, this post does seem like nothing more than turning a blind eye to what Apple has done with iOS7.
- btipling 13y ago
  I'm also an Apple fan. I love my Macbook Pro Retina, it's the best computer I've ever owned. Being a fan of a company shouldn't blind you to their missteps when they happen though. It shouldn't lead to unfair application of criticism.
  - sbuk 13y ago
    You're absolutely right. Much of the caterwauling hasn't been fair though. This isn't a final release we are discussing. It a beta. It's a redesign that has been on the boards for less than 7 months, and it looks that way. Does it need more work? Yes, absolutely. I don't thing a single engineer or designe at Apple is sitting back in their chair and thinking "job done". What it is is an interesting direction. Accusations of 'missteps' are off the mark. It's difficult to have a sensible discussion as the signal-to-noise in any Apple discussion is just awful. Criticism is good, however most are utterly incapable of doing so constructively, which is plainly bad.

Negitivefrags 13y ago

Unless Apple has significantly improved new app discovery on the App Store, I don't think we are going to see any changes. The algorithms that apple uses for the top lists promote established players, the search functions suck, and the interface for scrolling through lists of apps are so slow and clunky that it discourages users from exploring beyond the first 5-6 results in any list.

SwellJoe 13y ago

I don't think this is going to play out this way. Look to other operating systems that evolved their UI in similar fashion and a few of their dominant software players over the years: Windows-Office, Quickbooks, Quicken, IE/Chrome/Firefox/Netscape (which have shifted favor over years, but not because of UI changes in the OS) Mac OS (X and classic)-Adobe PS, Illustrator, ProTools, Office UI changes, even major ones, have had little to no effect on the dominant software titles for those systems. There have occasionally been new categories of software introduced. For instance, high quality video editing software for the home market, which was made possible by better home cameras and major advances in speed and resources of home computers. Pervasive internet allowed the browser wars to happen. It wasn't minor UI changes in the OS that allowed new players to come onto the scene, it was major technological advances. If you go back far enough, you can argue that the change from command line to GUI allowed for just such a revolution described (it definitely did: Wordstar/Wordperfect lost to Word, Lotus lost to Excel, AutoCad nearly lost its throne, etc.). But, nobody in their right mind is arguing that iOS 6 to iOS 7 is the difference between DOS and Windows 3.1 or between an Apple IIe and Lisa or the first Macintosh. History isn't always the best indicator in the tech industry, but in absence of other indicators, I'll bet on history repeating in some form.

MichaelGG 13y ago
The chrome around something like Photoshop is a small part of the entire experience, and unlikely to change a purchase decision. This is not true for many smartphone apps, where the look and feel is one of the key features and selection criteria. Apps that don't update will feel crappy and old and that'll put them at a major disadvantage. This will be a chance to catch any "lazy" dominant apps if they don't upgrade soon enough. I'm not sure if there are any dominant players that are lazy - seems like you'd need to keep on your toes if you're gonna stay dominant. So not a whole lot might change, anyways.
egypturnash 13y ago
There were some notable changes in the Classic-to-X change. Quark XPress replaced by InDesign, BBEdit replaced by TextMate. Probably a few others, too. Adobe's tools stood unchanged in the X switch, in no small part because they got X versions out pretty quickly that felt relatively at home. Quark, IIRC, took forever to make an X version, so Adobe was able to bring out an X page layout app and eat their lunch. Of course, it didn't hurt that everyone pretty much loathed XPress, especially its heaviest users...

bitops 13y ago

I hope I'm not in some crazy minority here, but I actually value stability and UIs not changing radically all the time. I feel like there's a craze afoot at the moment to "redesign everything all the time" and I'm not a big fan of it. If you're in tech, sure, it's the "price of progress" but for the lay user (i.e. the people who pay us money for software) it's just annoying.

kunai 13y ago
I'm in the same minority as you, but you can't deny that iOS 7 was a necessary change, and not one just for the sake of it.
- fpgeek 13y ago
  Just because a change was necessary doesn't mean this change was necessary. I'm still flabbergasted that Apple did their big overhaul (apparently) without addressing inter-application communication, default apps, Siri APIs or most of the other "power user" issues that would have helped them grow their computing paradigm. To me, increasing the scope and power of iOS devices while maintaining the predictability and control that are at the heart of Apple's take on mobile/touch-based computing is the problem Apple has to solve over the next few years. Judging from what I've heard about iOS 7, it sounds like Apple couldn't disagree more.
smacktoward 13y ago
That was my thought too. I'm a bit agog at seeing a developer lauding a platform owner for burning down the platform. If you're going to invest time and money in a platform, the last thing you want is to find out after that investment has been sunk that the platform steward likes to periodically smash everything. Marco argues that while this behavior is bad for incumbents, it's good for new entrants, but that doesn't make any sense; if you're a new entrant, your goal over the long term is to become an incumbent. Blowing everything up may benefit you today, but if you survive long enough to see the next demolition spree, then you'll be the one getting 'sploded. It's like arguing that living next to a volcano is good for development because it periodically clears out old building stock. A good platform is one you can build a business on. Sudden, dramatic change that flushes your investment to date down the toilet is bad for business.

kcoop 13y ago

So says the guy that just sold all his legacy apps.

lostlogin 13y ago
Money where his mouth is? Although it would seem unlikely unless he had a prior glimpse of what was coming. Is this that unlikely?
- ruswick 13y ago
  Although he wasn't aware of the exact details or extent of the changes, rumors of a total overhaul have been circulating for months. He probably anticipated having to input hundreds if not thousands of hours of development time to prepare for iOS 7. At the very least, this must have been a factor in his decisions.
ja27 13y ago
After seeing how mine look in the (hopefully very beta) iOS 7, I'm ready to sell half of mine rather than deal with UI updates.

Steko 13y ago

There's a huge tendency for designers to overstate the importance of "looking modern" as an actual end. A lot of people honestly wouldn't care if the buttons on their phone were modelled to look like 3d photorealistic rainbow poop. The designers tell them they don't need cases but they all buy the most garish hideous cases to say nothing of the bedazzler people. Sign me up as skeptical re: the coming app store revolution.

foobarbazqux 13y ago

> Fertile Ground I'm getting pretty tired of blog post titles that give no real hint at all as to the topic. My mind labels them as "pretentious" because they're pretending to be deep when they're not; by that I mean that rarely do the posts offer up any kind of non-trivial insight. (Compare with PG's similarly titled essays.) Earlier today we had "Two i's" from DHH's crew (where you had to infer from reading the post that it was i for interesting and i for important). Dustin Curtis recently had "Glass". Please, you will still be the coolest people on the planet if you don't try to title your posts per the ineffable style of Apple product advertisements, and as a bonus we will even like you and your work a little bit more.

pazimzadeh 13y ago
I disagree that the title "Fertile Ground" gave no hint to the topic, but I agree about "Two i's".
- foobarbazqux 13y ago
  I was only complaining because I literally had no idea whatsoever that it was about Apple, never mind iOS 7, and I wouldn't have opened the link if I had known that. Is "Apple's iOS 7 is Fertile Ground" really that atrocious? I can understand how given the context of WWDC yesterday it might be more obvious, and that there is an argument for treating blog posts as ephemera, but in general I like it when things can maintain their meaning for months, years, or indefinitely.
ghshephard 13y ago
You would, of course, prefer something like, "iOS 7 reset creates new opportunities for Developers" or "iOS reboot creates conditions ripe for disruption" or, .... Honestly - "Fertile Ground" is a pretty damn good title. I can already imagine people casually discussing it at WWDC "Did you catch Marco's "Fertile Ground" post?"
- foobarbazqux 13y ago
  I would be happy with "Apple's iOS 7 is Fertile Ground", "Hands-On with Google Glass", and "Two I's for Productivity: Interesting and Important Tasks". Of course, these have all lost their Zen master cachet, but for me that's a distinct advantage. Good writing doesn't need to be cool.

tolmasky 13y ago

Yay change for change's sake. This is exactly the wrong attitude in my opinion. How does it help users to all of a sudden have most apps feel ancient? Is it really something to be proud of? That for the next year we'll be working on replacing existing utilities so that they feel "right" and "fresh" instead of doing what we should be doing: thinking of actual new software that is worthwhile to write. I've been saying this for a while but I think what is happening, and what many developers haven't noticed yet, is that we have exhausted the utility of software for software's sake. The interesting stuff happening in mobile now has nothing to do with "design" in the traditional sense any more. Its not enough to just have a coder and a designer on the team. The really cool stuff is all about what your phone actually allows you to do in the real world. Look at apps like uber, postmates, spotify, and twitch.tv. Most of these have terrible UI's, but that's not the point. The point is that they allow you to do things. I can have a car on my doorstep! I can listen to almost any song I want. They're not just another calculator app or news reader, so who cares if its not the prettiest or easiest thing to use in the world. They are an interface to actually useful services. Software was interesting on its own a decade ago, but the industry has grown up, its time to do things now. That doesn't mean that "UI and UX" don't matter, it just means their definition changes and grows beyond just how you tap things on glass and what pixels you choose to animate. The reason that iOS 7 seems comforting in the way its described in this article is because it gives developers who haven't realized this something to do again. Marco is absolutely right, for a long time it has felt like all the major categories have been covered on the app store. That's a good thing! It means we've solved lots of problems. We shouldn't daydream of a day when those problems get artificially unsolved so we can have another shot at them. We should move on.

mchanson 13y ago
Cause, like, I still use Visicalc and it works great.
ben336 13y ago
I think Marco is saying this is good from an independent ios developers perspective, not necessarily from a users perspective. As somebody who makes his living as an independent app developer, I'm sure he's thrilled about this. Its undeniably an opportunity for independent developers who don't have to maintain an existing app. Whether its good for users or the ecosystem in general is a totally different discussion.

bcl 13y ago

This is wrong. The vast majority don't want their OS (whether it is phone, desktop, laptop, etc.) to suddenly change. They want stability. They have invested the time and effort to learn the UI and integrate it into their lives, change disrupts this and wastes their time. If you force them into learning a new way to do things you have just reduced the friction of them switching to some other platform. And that's how you lose customers.

bennyg 13y ago
It's honestly not that different. Messaging is just as easy as before. Using Calendar is just as easy as before. All of the apps that aren't Apple's are the exact same and will be for the beginning of the official release. You underestimate people and their ability to adapt to change.

cheald 13y ago

So when Android is fragmented, it is awful and is the reason the platform sucks. When iOS is fragmented, it's innovative and fresh, masterfully executed to bring new opportunities to developers. Got it.

ghshephard 13y ago
Android Fragmentation is a problem because what version do you write your application for? 2.3? 4.0? Ideally 4.1/4.2, but that will miss 70% of your market who CAN'T upgrade because their Telco is not offering 4.1/4.2. Not because their hardware can't support it. Anybody on an iPhone 4, 4S, or 5 who wants an iOS 7 app, can have it within a day of the iOS 7 release. The downside of offering only one major phone a year, is that you don't occupy much shelf space in a best buy/AT&T - and someone casually looking for a phone, instead of a particular phone, is 90% unlikely to chose you. The upside, is that when you offer a new OS - everyone gets to upgrade. That's the Android fragmentation issue.
- cheald 13y ago
  No, you write for the minimum API level your app requires. In a lot of cases, this is 2.3.3! If you want to target a wide audience and still use some 3.0/4.0 features, there are nifty polyfills available, too. Google is further improving this by extracting many of the super useful APIs out into a version-agnostic package that is updated independent of carrier say-so. Your API level 10 apps will run quite happily on Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and JB devices. Furthermore, Google supports multiple APK deployments, so you can actually build your application with different features for different API levels, and publish them under the same entry in the Play store; each device is routed to the proper APK. However, despite all of this, you are talking about the exact same thing that Marco is. He says you "ideally" want to target iOS7, but you can't afford to do so if it means cutting out your iOS6 users. His conjecture is that since the established players are stuck on iOS6 (Gingerbread), the up-and-comers will have a shot to disrupt the market among the iOS7 (Jelly Bean) users. The assertion, flat out, is that "the big players being unable to upgrade their iOS6 software to meet iOS7 standards due to legacy support requirements is good for the app ecosystem", which is a pure RDF spin on the whole fragmentation issue that the Apple ecosystem loves talking about so much.

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kevincrane 13y ago

I've seen this in several places, but when people say Apple "changed everything about how use it" in this version of iOS, what did they actually change? The only big things I've seen with regards to the OS seem to be the flat iconography and the pull-up menu from the bottom that has the setting changes. Everything else looked approximately identical functionally (at first glance anyway).

hrabago 13y ago
There are changes, for instance, about how multitasking works, that an application can take advantage of. If one app doesn't take advantage of it, and another does, I may use one over the other more often. For instance, there was an app that used Push Notification and the Icon Badge to show the current temperature, and for a time I used that over The Weather Channel's app. Small things like this creates opportunities, this is what Marco was saying.

drpancake 13y ago

I disagree with the significance being given to these UI changes. Many App Store niches are dominated by incredibly ugly apps that are functional and get the job done. Take a look at WhatsApp for a prime example.

kenjackson 13y ago

Fertile ground is Google Glass, the new Kinect sensor, 3d printing, etc... There are so many more interesting targets, I hope we don't focus our best on new skins for flashlight apps.

hi2usir 13y ago
Don't forget the iAds with your flashlight app.
Samuel_Michon 13y ago
Flashlight is built into the iOS 7 control panel. Innovation FTW ;)

coderguy123 13y ago

How can this be sustainable? all this fragmentation/versions - iOS new >=7 and <7, all different versions of android, windows 8 metro etc etc. how many different platform specific versions are these service providers like say pandora suppose to create? I feel like unless the app is taking advantage of some inherent hardware capability of the phone/tablet everything should eventually be HTML5.

hrabago 13y ago
Your example illustrates what Marco is saying. A big player that needs to support all those different versions of different platforms may take more time updating their iOS app to adapt the latest standards. An indie developer, who has more agility and can choose to only support iOS 7, now has a possible advantage, if s/he chooses to take advantage of it.

ianstallings 13y ago

I've faced it in other platforms and it's easily overcome with software patterns that you should already be using. If you have a good separations of concerns and the UI is truly decoupled from your logic and models you should not be having any issues. If you don't already have that use this time to refactor and move forward. Some things won't be possible across both platforms. Find those now and address them first.

jusben1369 13y ago

Aren't the well/better funded dev shops and apps going to more easily make the transition? Won't the smaller ones feel the pain of backward/multi version support more acutely? Didn't we just empower the status quo? True there'll be net new revs with no legacy issues but not sure how game changing that is.

jared314 13y ago

You have to be fast to pick up nickels in front of a steamroller. There is some money in porting something between the old and the new playing field, but the incumbents will eventually update.

hrabago 13y ago
That's where the opportunity is. If "eventually" is six months, then you have six months to make your mark. By then, if you play your cards right and/or you get lucky, you can get in a good position and try to hold it, which you may not have had the chance before.

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jeffpersonified 13y ago

I've been a rails developer for a while now, and contemplating whether or not to focus my energies on a js frontend framework or learning iOS. I think this post was all I needed to make a decision. Thanks Marco.

mwfunk 13y ago

I'm not sure how a new OS update that changes more things than usual is fragmentation, especially when that OS has a very small number of devices that it runs on and a user base that by and large quickly updates to the new releases. It might be more of a disruptive update than usual, it might be good or bad for users in the short term, it might be good or bad for developers in the short term, but it's not fragmentation.

shinratdr 13y ago

In case you've ever wondered why Marco frequently dismisses the Hacker News community, the comments on this article are a fantastic example. Never has "give it five minute" been more apt.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago

I noticed something curious on page 10 of Apple’s iOS 7 Transition Guide[1], in the section “Things Every App Should Do”: ”Examine your app for hard-coded UI values – such as sizes and positions – and replace them with those you derive dynamically from system-provided values. Use Auto Layout to help your app respond when layout changes are required.” Now, I may be reading too much into this, but the use of the word ‘when’ sounds to me like Apple is preparing products with other resolutions than are on the current iOS devices. I think there would be a market for a budget iPhone with a smaller screen, and a high-end iPad with a larger screen. Also, the icon size for apps is different in iOS 7. It’s going up from 114x114 to 120x120. [1] http://es.slideshare.net/evgenybelyaev16/transition-guide http://es.slideshare.net/evgenybelyaev16/transition-guide

smackfu 13y ago
This could also be related to iOS 7 having a system-level font size setting.

ojbyrne 13y ago

Or, in the six months before the new shiny iOS appears, every single dominant or near-dominant application on the app store decides that it makes more sense for them to build a version that targets the other ecosystem.

mangoman 13y ago

As a developer who hasn't published an app in the iOS App store, I love the point that Marco's making. One of my biggest biggest hesitations in developing an iOS application has been, how the hell can I differentiate myself? By being one of the first iOS 7 apps! I don't have to have some crazy sense of design, or think too hard about what gradients I use, since my app will stand out from the start. I think that's one of the main points in the argument. As a developer who has friends who have developed "non-trivial" iOS apps, damn. This is pretty spot on exactly what happened (happening still even) on Android with pre/post 3.0 applications. Making sure that the UI works on both categories of devices is just awful. There are a few projects out there to help (ActionBarSherlock, HoloEverywhere), but it takes a lot of diligence, ESPECIALLY if you're trying to do combination tablet and phone apps. A lot of the posts I've read on this thread are missing the point of the post. It's not just about change, its not about fragmentation, its about the excitement for newcomers to join an ecosystem that has felt super saturated for years. It may not actually shake the foundation of the app store, but it at least allows for new talent to enter on the same playing field as those who have been developing iOS applications for years. That's just exciting.

chj 13y ago

Every disaster is opportunity. In the case of iOS 7, the opportunity belongs to Android and windows.

gaving 13y ago

Can't help but think the Vesper guys wished they had waited until next year.

csomar 13y ago

1. Given Apple history of screwing developers, I doubt they are doing it for developers. 2. It's my opinion. I think the hybrid new design is much worse than the old one. I like the old design. It's different and not old. 3. How is starting from scratch is good for users? Remember, we are here for users and not developers. Also, there are lots of apps not affected by this change: games and apps with their own UI just come to my mind.

buro9 13y ago

Good design is long-lasting - #7 of Dieter Rams ten principles of good design. I wonder how many app designers will realise that the apps they produced were subject to the fashion of the design of the operating system, and now that the fashion and trend has moved, whether the app designers will be confident enough to apply their own timeless design. The iOS7 colour palette and style is fresh and new (to iOS users), but it is just the next fashion, and as fresh and new as it feels today, it will feel equally old and stale (like iOS6) at some point in the future. Good design is long-lasting. App designers should concentrate on getting their design right for their application, and not just follow the trend and wear the attire of the operating system. Marco is right that when the fashion changes, those who cannot keep up with fashion leave a large opportunity for those who can. I also agree that there is also a lot of money to be made by being one of those who can follow fashion closely. But from a design perspective... those who follow others (the operating system) rather than having the courage to lead (the right design for the app), will always be subject to vulnerability when the fashion changes.

modernerd 13y ago

Thousands of developers will be perfectly happy to drop iOS 5 and 6 support and remodel their apps for iOS 7 – myself included – because: a. The new APIs and Xcode look lovely to work with. b. Dropping support for iPhone 3G and 3GS devices four years after they were released doesn't feel unreasonable. c. Apple has a long history of featuring apps that use their latest APIs. Having your app featured is still the only reasonable hope to make money in the App Store, unless your business model revolves around selling Smurfberries. d. Many developers will have been holding back from making major app changes because they were waiting to see how iOS 7 would change the design language. Now that they know, they can spend the Summer redesigning. e. Apple are openly inviting developers to "reimagine your apps on iOS 7" - that's the language they've used in their developer emails. f. A successful developer with a widely read blog has just come out and said that everyone who drops support for older iOS versions to build afresh on top of iOS 7 stands to gain a lot. So there will probably be a huge host of "new, nimble" apps with new takes on tired old setups come Autumn. But I bet a lot of torch app developers are feeling very hard done by.

nadam 13y ago

"Most can’t afford to write two separate interfaces. (It’s a terrible idea anyway.)" Why? If the newcomers can afford to write an interface for iOS7, the established players also can. If there is money in it for newcomers, there is money in it for established players too. This article assumes that established players are dumb. They will estimate how users adopt iOS7 over time, and act accordingly.

smackfu 13y ago
I think it assumes that established players are conservative, not dumb. They will do the least effort necessary to make their app look good in iOS 7, at least at first.

mbq 13y ago

This is precisely why I think modern approach to software UX and design is crazy. Like 15 years ago, in the Windows hegemony every sane designer was heavily relying on widgets, metaphors and flow defined by the system and MS could almost flawlessly upgrade the look of the entire ecosystem with XP's Luna. And without breaking the user experience. Now everybody is looking for some virtual perfection in a different place and the user gets an awful, inconsistent, non-customizable and anti-interoperable clutter. WHY?

programminggeek 13y ago

Apple is one of the companies that can really get away with an en-masse OS transition simply because they are basically guaranteed to get 80% on board in less than 6 months simply because they control the distribution mechanism and the device hardware itself. They can plan for these transitions. Google and to a lesser extent Microsoft screwed up and are struggling to be able to keep their users on the latest and greatest. This is such a huge advantage for Apple that it can't be overstated. On Android at least 36% of devices are still running Gingerbread (which is 2.5 years old). Android 4.x is finally up over 50% after being out for just over a year and a half. So, whenever Google gets around to Android 5.0, it will probably be a whole year later (or more) before that is the mainstream targetable version of Android. As a developer, you could argue this gives you more time to get around to building against the new api's, but at the same time that's remarkably slow user uptake compared to iOS.