Hacker News Reader

Comment by nopal | Hacker News Reader

I'm an iOS user, and I don't much exposure to Android, but I wonder -- is iOS really stale?

Apple's added a lot in the past few years while keeping the core design consistent. I'm sure they could have done more in this time period, but my personal feeling is that they don't want to confuse users with some of the more advanced things that can be done on other devices.

They want their devices to be useable by everyone, and even now, some things are confusing to novice users (folders, notification center). They are being conservative in their design, but it seems deliberate, and I wonder how that translates to the masses -- usable or out-of-date?

View on HN

" is iOS really stale? "

They are still selling every phone they can make, so I would guess no. The hardware, mostly the screen, needs some refreshing to be current with hardware on other platforms, but no, I wouldn't call it stale.

More like the media looking for something to talk about while waiting for the new, next iPhone to come out.

> The hardware, mostly the screen

What needs changing? It's incredibly high resolution, and is the only phone screen I've ever seen that can display purple properly.

  > The hardware, mostly the screen

Uhm? iPhone 5 has one of the best screens ever made, did other surpass it so quick?

If you look at the fact sheet[1] you will see the iPhone 5 has a 4inch display with 326 PPI (pixels per inch) whereas the HTC One (IMO the best Android phone right now) has a 4.7inch display with 468 PPI. The HTC One display is LARGER and has a much higher pixel density!

[1]: http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/6116/6274/6863

Yes. See any of the new generation of android phones.

Yes. I can't avoid not to, in SE Asia.

They range from subpar to just slightly inferior to the iPhone.

Except if you mean screen real estate (with some 5 inch plus screens). In which case I wouldn't call that better, just more.

The new halo phones from HTC (One) and Samsung (S4) have twice the resolution of the iPhone5.

They are still selling every phone they can make, so I would guess no

A few years back people were calling out the Blackberry for being stale, but supporters would point to its leadership of the market and RIM's strong profits to ignore the point.

Being stale is a leading indicator. The impact is not immediate.

More like the media looking for something to talk about

This is a pretty commonly stated argument to shout down something we don't want to hear, and it's nonsense. A story only has traction if there is a widespread belief that it could be true, and in the case of iOS the belief that they are essentially handcuffed by their own userbase into avoiding significant change is something that is quite widely being believed.

Never, ever would I count Apple out (they have been an amazing company), but they are in a tough position where they're being outflanked but any maneuver they make might offend their current userbase (see also: Microsoft).

As someone who uses both (one personal, one work), but still finds myself gravitating towards iOS pretty much every time I have a choice, my view is that there are definitely a few places it could do with a bit of sprucing up.

The most obvious is clearly the lack of any form of live tiles/desktop/widgets. There's a few apps that I would love to get more information straight on the desktop than just a badge with a count of "actions" on it. The calendar, for example - at leas it actually shows today's date - but being able to show the next meeting at a glance would be great. Or being able to show a live stock ticker etc.

The other biggie for me is default apps. It's great that we now have Chrome on there, but I'd love to be able to get any browser link to launch that rather than Safari.

The skeurmorphic v flat thing is really just window-dressing though. Sure, there's a bit of reskinning that could be done in some of the apps, but if that's one of the biggest problems that people have with a UI that's 6 year old, then it's doing something right.

I'm with you on the live tiles and default apps.

As for live tiles, again I think it's Apple optimizing for understanding. If they allow apps to have widgets, they risk users unknowingly eating up bandwidth and battery. I could see them starting with their apps and then opening up some sort of new API for these types of apps.

>"is iOS really stale?"

In the sense "they haven't surprised us with something totally new in a while, and we're lazy enough to pretend that me-too offerings by competitors are more current", yes.

What? Android stopped being "me too" quite some time ago, now Apple needs to play the catch up game.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com