The comparisons are pretty striking. Apple really set the standard for smartphone design and it took competitors quite a while to catch up. I have an Android

The comparisons are pretty striking. Apple really set the standard for smartphone design and it took competitors quite a while to catch up. I have an Android phone and iPad and I think both design approaches have their benefits and drawbacks. It was probably easier to design an app using the iOS 6 and lower defaults and have it look nice, while the completely flat design requires careful use of whitespace and color and differentiate the various UI sections and elements. In the long-term, best practices will be better documented and flat designs won't be a problem.