I love widget
I think widget is good. I can peek on the weather without opening the apps, I can check the currency exchange, I can peek the news, check who,s updating their facebook etc...
I don't need widget on desktop but for a mobile device I think widget is essential. That's what make mobile devices and desktop different. Mobile devices should make our day to day information and communication easy and less hassle.
I think ios would be perfect with a bit of widget and a bit of customization on the end user part.
Yes ios is simple but sometimes simple can be too boring... I've been holding my purchase of iphone and I decided to give android a chance to grow with me. I have an ipad and I am testing it against my newly Dell Streak.
One thing that I love about the Apple product is it industrial design of the physical product.. not so much of it os...
So after a brief comparison I can say that I love android os concept. You can download the apps and it will be kept at home section and you only need any application that you want to be on the pages by inserting the widget or the shortcut of the apps. I think that is a good thing as I don't like all the apps that I've downloaded appear on the screen. It would be very much discreet in that sense and you can personalise your device based on your requirement.
I think that what mobile devices is all about. It's about personalization, customization and flexibility to adapt to your understanding of how the device will help you get your job done.
Beauty alone won't solve the user centered design issues and sometimes too rigid would lead to a future development problem. The whole ecosystem of ios is fine probably at the moment but in a long term it might be not as new mobile oses emerge such as meego, bada, android etc... where this oses taking consideration of user experiences.
What important for users is how this mobile devices will make them efficient. For me ios must grow into more flexible oses. If issues such as widget claimed to drained the battery than I think it is not a big issues. System can be very efficient if properly program and battery technology is always growing. So I don't think that reason alone can stay long for apple not to expand it ios features.
if the battery life of iphone is as long as other android phones or not that far better, than I don't think widget or multitasking is a culprit of a battery issue but it is more of the OS efficiency.