How can anyone know how long iOS 7 has been in the works? They aren't going to make public every single detail of a private project. It may have been two years for all we know.
Scott Forstall created iOS and was responsible for every version of it up through iOS 6. He, along with Steve Jobs, was a proponent of the skeuomorphic style that characterizes those versions of iOS.
But, as you may know, Forstall "resigned" from Apple at the end of last October and his responsibilities were divided among Jony Ive, Craig Federighi and Eddy Cue. Jony Ive was made Senior Vice President for Human Interface. Ive, as you also may know, is
not a proponent of skeuomorphic design. The human interface we see in iOS 7 reflects Jony Ive's design sense, not Scott Forstall's. Since Jony Ive has only been in charge of human interface since October, we can deduce that what we see today in iOS 7 has been designed only since then.
I hardly think this is a matter of the "best they could do in the time they had" - this is a firm, clear design decision - Apple are certainly not the type of company to rush things, certainly not something as crucial as a MAJOR release of an OS.
It is precisely a matter of "the best they could do in the time they had," but as I said, I don't mean that as a disparagement. The human interface of iOS 7 is, indeed, a firm, clear design decision. But they had only a few months to implement that decision if they were going to have something to debut at WWDC this year. I suppose they could have made an incremental improvement to iOS 6 this year and saved iOS 7 for next year, but obviously, they chose not to.
I think they did a great job, all things considered, and there are still a few months left before the public release, so I expect it to improve between now and then.
It's really not going to be changing much, if at all, so for those who dislike it, I would advise not thinking too much about it, or if you really cannot stand it, "jump ship".
Some probably will, but not I. As I've said elsewhere, I love iOS 7. My complaints about it are mere quibbles compared to the things I like about it. And the point I was trying to make in this thread is that I like the direction Apple is going with iOS, and I'm eager to see what they're able to do with it when they have a whole year to work on it.
Lack of planning and un-thought-out design is the way of Google, not Apple.
I have not accused Apple of a lack of planning or thinking, but of a lack of time to implement the plan they thought out. They wanted to have a reasonably-complete version of iOS 7 ready to debut at WWDC this year, and that was a huge undertaking, given that they only had a few months to work on it. That they pulled it off as well as they did is impressive.