iOS 7 Now on 73% of Devices, But Adoption Rates 'Much Slower' Than iOS 6

[Jon the Heretic]

Yuck

Many folks get all afraid at anything new. It's the same layout and mostly same functionality, it's easy. I can't understand people lamenting 7. It's clearly a move forward. iOS 6 looks like a rotary phone. Of course it's going to be a bit slower on old devices, c'est la vie.

I reverted to iOS 6 because I absolutely loathe the new UI. I never had to be told I had to like it before. I just did. This is the worse design work Apple has ever done, right up there with Sir Ive's round hockey puck mouse, and was urged on Apple by a contingent of visual designers who do not work with end users and millennials who get bored if something isnt't changed every few mins--- change for the sake of change or I will get bored! Simple awful. Sticking to what I love for as long as I can.

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I love iOS 7. I don't get what not to like. Sure some icons are ugly, but they kinda fade into the background after a while. The new UI itself feel more modernized and robust. After using it for a few weeks now, the old UI looks like something from the 90s, especially that old keyboard.

No, the 90s never looked that good. iOS 7 with its flat look and colors actually looks 70s to my eyes---ok early 80s in a couple of places. But since most of you don't remember that era, you think it's new when it is the ultimate retro.

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The FUNCTION of iOS 7 is great, but the layout and theme choices are clearly forced. Things like the default font for icons are just WRONG, they're newbie mistakes from the GUI handbook. If Apple would offer a way to go back to the iOS 6 theme most people would shut up overnight.

Exactly so. iOS 7 is the triumph of shallow visual design fashion over human factors based interaction design which actually involved the study of human behavior. The fashionistas are bored with good design principles and want to inflict this on everyone out of snobbery and contempt for the ordinary user without their "refined" design sense.

iOS 7 and Windows 8 seem to be cut from same cloth.

 

[Altis]

My girlfriend makes fun of me for being stuck on iOS 7... but she would have upgraded had it not been for seeing mine!

I'll admit that iOS 6 does look somewhat dated for a few minutes while going back to it. But it's FAST. I can feel how slow iOS 7 is with all the animations causing large gaps in touch response... but I only realize just how bad it is when I use her phone on iOS 6. Even my 1st gen iPad now feels slick and fast, by comparison.

Apple fanatics go on about how Apple's touch screens are 0.05 seconds faster to respond, but then get mad at those who dislike the 1-1.5 second deadzone between apps, closing folders, unlocking, etc.

 

[sirdir]

I installed iOS 7 because of new features - so did my wife. At first she refused, but as her son wanted to call her Facetime audio, so after some days of muttering, she installed it.
We both hate the look. Of course you get used to anything, but I still think the new ui design (which really isn't design at all, it's rather the absence of design) is ugly, inconsistent and a huge step back. If the iPhone would have come out with that interface in first place it wouldn't have been such a huge success.

 

[Gudi]

I have been complaining about the failed user interface design of iOS 7 right from the first keynote presentation. As far as accusing Jony Ive of destroying everything that was special about the whole company. People told me I should at least wait till I have seen the final release version in person on a device not on still fotos. And yes, it makes a difference.

Now having seen iOS 7 on an iPad mini I have one more reason to complain. Even if you are one of those people who somehow like the look of iOS 7, you can't deny, it was made with Retina screens in mind only. Thin lined circles and text are absolutly awful on a non-Retina screen. iOS 7 makes absolutly no concessions to first generation iPad minis.

Up until now Retina was kind of optional, making things that look good to look even better. With iOS 7 it has become more of a minimum requirement for using Helvetica Neue. So I can confirm that the next iPad mini not only will have but must have a Retina display and that we won't see an iOS-7-like redesign of OSX before all Macs have Retina displays.

This is good news. The slow progress in modern display technology proliferation also delays Jony Ives destruction of the OSX user interface. Thank God, Retina iMacs are hard to make! 4K FTW.

 

[shartypants]

I hate it. It's just ugly. Why can't we install themes that we like and want?

I hate it too. I updated my phone, but refuse to infect my iPad. I like the new functional features, but the look blows. In my opinion this is rock bottom for Apple as far as look and feel goes.

 

[Jim W]

Put it on my iPhone for Apple Radio. This will never go on my iPad. Makes 6 look positively elegant. Yuck! Looks like a cardboard cereal box...

 

[jasonr704]

I have very mixed feeling about iOS7, most are really not so good. I don't much care for the "flatten" look of the UI. The calendar is absolutely horrible! They took out appointments summary by day. Photos sharing is really confusing now. The just way too much text going on.... not enough buttons or icons to separate things out. Weather really took a step back, not forward. Phone isn't a step forward at all. The only Apple app that I think is a great improvement is Camera. That's actually really easy now and vastly improved!

 

[MacAddict1978]

Does this factor in the fact that there are more iOS devices now than there were then?

It does not sound like they are factoring the older incompatible devices still in use.

And if I had an iPhone 4, I wouldn't update to save my soul.

 

[cambox]

How a few weeks change on this forum.. IO7 was the best thing since sliced bread 3 weeks ago.. Now everyone hates it! So glad I didnt go early and kept the 6!

 

[KPOM]

Now having seen iOS 7 on an iPad mini I have one more reason to complain. Even if you are one of those people who somehow like the look of iOS 7, you can't deny, it was made with Retina screens in mind only. Thin lined circles and text are absolutly awful on a non-Retina screen. iOS 7 makes absolutly no concessions to first generation iPad minis.

I have no problems whatsoever using my iPad mini with iOS 7. Of course, if a Retina iPad mini is on tap Tuesday I'll be buying it, but iOS 7 looks just fine on the non-Retina mini.

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How a few weeks change on this forum.. IO7 was the best thing since sliced bread 3 weeks ago.. Now everyone hates it! So glad I didnt go early and kept the 6!

No, it's still pretty good. Remember, at this point last year, everyone still "hated" iOS 6, which was last year's "worst iOS update ever" since Maps gave them wrong directions, Exchange access was broken, and it drained batteries. After a few point updates it was fine. It will be the same with iOS 7.

 

[mdog]

i don't hate iOS 7. i think the new features are great. i like the new 'expose'/mission control better.

there are 2 things i dislike about iOS 7.

the aesthetic design. i i don't mind the flatter icons, i don't ever want to see my Mac OS follow that design though. but mostly i don't like tapping 'words' i prefer the buttons, and the philosophy of iOS 6.

i don't like the gesture for control center. i would of much preferred a reliable gesture, like the mission control one. 4 fingers for mission control, 3 for control center.


i would like to downgrade my iPad back to iOS 6. unfortunately i became part of the iOS 7 demographic, but i was forced. i found a way to downgrade to iOS 6 on google, and i was going to do it the next day. the reason why i upgraded to iOS 7, is because it was the only way to completely clean my iPad from this 'Other storage' bs that was taking up Gigabytes of my space. unfortunately the next day apple stopped signing the iOS 6 OS so i was screwed and left on iOS 7.

pity. wish i looked into my 'other storage' issue earlier.

Almost the exact same thing happened to me. I had uploaded some RAW pics from my DSLR to my iPad but it would not show in any apps and you could not download it with any program but it took up GBs of space. I wiped it and put iOS 7 on it and have regretted it since.

The features are great but the interface SUCKS!
- Don't need the gimmicky fade in fade out when powering on off I just want things to be available immediately
- Who cares about some stupid parallax effect on the lock screen? Dumb gimmick
- The icons are like so many companies' logos these days made for kindergarteners (who are so mentally challenged they are flunking out of nap time)
- You now have to do 2 actions just to get to your apps in a folder if there are more than 9
- The icons are indiscernible. I have to look around all the time for my default iOS apps because they all look alike and no you don't get used to it over time. At least change their colors so they're distinct!

Simple may be better but this is just plain retarded. If you want simple but elegant look at German cars, not a Dr Seuss book for inspiration. This is as bad as Win 8.0. Jeez. I can't wait for iOS 8 to see if they finally come to their senses or better yet maybe they'll do what they did in Win 8.1 and actually fix the interface so we don't have to live with this crap. Great features completely ruined by horrible industrial design.

Fire Johnny Ive!

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I have no problems whatsoever using my iPad mini with iOS 7. Of course, if a Retina iPad mini is on tap Tuesday I'll be buying it, but iOS 7 looks just fine on the non-Retina mini.

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No, it's still pretty good. Remember, at this point last year, everyone still "hated" iOS 6, which was last year's "worst iOS update ever" since Maps gave them wrong directions, Exchange access was broken, and it drained batteries. After a few point updates it was fine. It will be the same with iOS 7.

Not unless they fix the horrendous interface.

Everything else we can live with until they fix it as bugs are to be expected at first. The new features are great and trump the bugs but the interface that competes with Win 8.0 for worst idea of the millennium trumps all of that by an easy mile.

 

[dannyyankou]

How a few weeks change on this forum.. IO7 was the best thing since sliced bread 3 weeks ago.. Now everyone hates it! So glad I didnt go early and kept the 6!

Everyone doesn't hate it, it's just the small percentage of those people are being very vocal about it.

 

[mdog]

The FUNCTION of iOS 7 is great, but the layout and theme choices are clearly forced. Things like the default font for icons are just WRONG, they're newbie mistakes from the GUI handbook. If Apple would offer a way to go back to the iOS 6 theme most people would shut up overnight.

Amen bro.

 

[borostef]

I have no problems whatsoever using my iPad mini with iOS 7. Of course, if a Retina iPad mini is on tap Tuesday I'll be buying it, but iOS 7 looks just fine on the non-Retina mini.

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No, it's still pretty good. Remember, at this point last year, everyone still "hated" iOS 6, which was last year's "worst iOS update ever" since Maps gave them wrong directions, Exchange access was broken, and it drained batteries. After a few point updates it was fine. It will be the same with iOS 7.

This is true... People complained about iOS 6... But... Those were few apps that didn't do that job very well, and a few useful features broken, all things easily repaired by an update... With iOS 7 we are talking about some people, including me, not liking the whole look and feel of an entire operating system... You really can't compare the two...

 

[KPOM]

This is true... People complained about iOS 6... But... Those were few apps that didn't do that job very well, and a few useful features broken, all things easily repaired by an update... With iOS 7 we are talking about some people, including me, not liking the whole look and feel of an entire operating system... You really can't compare the two...

iOS 7 is a more radical redesign. It's much more like the switch from OS 9 to OS X. Remember, people didn't like it at first, either. In succeeding years much of the glassy, skeumorphic effects in OS X were toned down, and people got used to the new look. I think the same will happen with iOS. In this case, we might see a bit more contrast return, but I don't think we'll see a complete reversion. There's just too much new functionality and a lot of behind-the-scenes improvement for Apple to go back now.

Oddly, people had been loudly complaining about how "stale" iOS 6 had gotten and how Windows Phone and Android passed them by. Now it looks a little more like Windows Phone and Android, and people complain that they want the old system back. That said, about 90% of the basic functionality is still there. Pretty much everything you could do in iOS 6 you can do in exactly the same way in iOS 7 (search is a bit different, but better once you understand the new way to pull it down). I almost wonder how many of the complaints would go away if Apple brought back the old default wallpapers and did nothing else.

 

[SusanK]

73% is pretty good for 6 days. I love how articles are skewed to make things look bad when they really aren't.

Compare ANYTHING to something better and you'll get skewed statistics. Gee, Brad Pitt's success rate with women is 80%. But George Clooney has only 73% success rate. George must be a loser.

I vote for Clooney

 

[SusanK]

Still happily using iOS 6 here. Will upgrade when an app I really rely on no longer supports it!

voice of reason

 

[Dave.UK]

I was simply referring to the adoption rate of a new OS version. Not actual features. The fragmentation of which devices get the new software and when they get them depending on carrier and whatnot absolutely killed the Android experience for me when I switched. Though there were things that I liked about the OS, the fact that you can have a 6 month old phone that won't get a software update that was released 2 weeks ago until 3-6 months down the line is simply ridiculous to me. And the whole upgrading on your own through rooting a device is not a practical alternative.

Have you read recently on how Google has tackled fragmentation?

Heres an article that worth a look at.

 

[Gudi]

I have no problems whatsoever using my iPad mini with iOS 7. Of course, if a Retina iPad mini is on tap Tuesday I'll be buying it, but iOS 7 looks just fine on the non-Retina mini.

No it does not look just fine. Earlier OSes have been optimized for looking good on pixelated screens. They used textures and shadows to hide the bad placed pixels. Not so iOS 7. The supposed to be sharp and clear look is very unvorgiving on non-Retina screens. It is as if iOS 7 was purposefully designed to show of the weaknesses of non-Retina screens and thereby demonstrate the strengths of Retina screens.

This is all fine for the future. We won't need the old tricks anymore when everything has super tiny pixels. But millions of first generation iPad minis will suffer from beeing behind in screen technology. They shouldn't be updated to iOS 7. This is just a transition problem. I doubt there will be a single non-Retina iDevice for sale after next tuesday. No more iPad 2 and no iPad mini 1.

The bigger problem is that the designers at Apple are so damn proud of their new ability to paint super thin lines which do not look pixelated, that they have started to use thin lines everywhere. Every icon, every text, everything is a super thin line now. Much like when everything was an Aqua bubble. Or when the Dock in OSX Tiger needed to be reflective just to show off Core Animations.

Thin lines and thin text are great design tools to deemphasize less important information. iOS 7 just misuses and overuses them, because they are a relatively new ability made possible through Retina screens. Its a beginners mistake to only use the newest tool in your box.

 

[No5tromo]

Yea iOS 7 has some bugs here and there but that's not the reason I don't like it. I don't like it A. for the stupid, unprofessional new design and B. cause some of my favorite features (like the weather, facebook and twitter widgets) are gone. I tried a 3Gs the other day and it immediately felt right, I just can't get used to all the new pointless crap. It added absolutely nothing to the exprience and it's not intuitive either, try the orientation lock after you accidentaly turn it sideways for instace...

As for speed, if anything it's a bit slower.

 

[Konrad9]

Does this factor in the fact that there are more iOS devices now than there were then?

It's percentage based?

 

[B4U]

The FUNCTION of iOS 7 is great, but the layout and theme choices are clearly forced. Things like the default font for icons are just WRONG, they're newbie mistakes from the GUI handbook. If Apple would offer a way to go back to the iOS 6 theme most people would shut up overnight.

Not trying to apply to all hardware guys...but this is what happens when you put a hardware guy to do software...

 

[borostef]

iOS 7 is a more radical redesign. It's much more like the switch from OS 9 to OS X. Remember, people didn't like it at first, either. In succeeding years much of the glassy, skeumorphic effects in OS X were toned down, and people got used to the new look. I think the same will happen with iOS. In this case, we might see a bit more contrast return, but I don't think we'll see a complete reversion. There's just too much new functionality and a lot of behind-the-scenes improvement for Apple to go back now.

Oddly, people had been loudly complaining about how "stale" iOS 6 had gotten and how Windows Phone and Android passed them by. Now it looks a little more like Windows Phone and Android, and people complain that they want the old system back. That said, about 90% of the basic functionality is still there. Pretty much everything you could do in iOS 6 you can do in exactly the same way in iOS 7 (search is a bit different, but better once you understand the new way to pull it down). I almost wonder how many of the complaints would go away if Apple brought back the old default wallpapers and did nothing else.

Well... I am one of the few that did not complain about iOS 6, I did not think that it looked stale, I loved it, and that is why I'm staying with it for as long as I can... I thought it looked much better, and worked better than Android or Windows phone... Not so sure about iOS 7....

 

[kunai]

(Me)

---

But who cares which one gets adopted faster.

3GS? I sold my iPhone 5 after Apple announced older app downloads for older iPhones, and switched back to my 3G running 3.1.3!

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Stop with this Steve would do this or Steve wouldn't do that ****. He's dead. He asked Apple not to do something because it was what he wanted them to do.

And also think of the reaction to Aqua UI on Mac OS X against Platinum on OS 9. Steve wasn't afraid to shake things up.

Aqua had some serious problems, but everyone agreed that it was beautiful. The icons were photorealistic and beautiful, and everything had a shine and gloss in it that was so refreshing. 10.2 cleared most of the UI problems up and people loved it. The current (10.8+) Aqua has to be the best iteration yet. Vestiges and bluish highlights remain, but the overall feel of OS X is modern, understated, elegant, and sleek, while retaining its individual character.

But one thing that sets it apart is that Aqua was designed to be an intrinsically skeuomorphic design. It was designed to increase the number of visual cues in the product, while iOS 7's interface was designed to decrease visual cues.

The latter is a flawed approach, and that's why there's so much backlash. Not to mention, whereas Aqua made everything more realistic, iOS 7 is a step back, making things more cartoonish and unsophisticated. Some of the icons look so horrid that I wonder if Apple's designers even made them, and there's way, way, way, way, way, way, way too much visual inconsistency in the interface.

Harder to use is never better. I thought Apple of all people would understand that.

 

[kporterjr]

Still waiting

While I like the new look & there are many great features in iOS7, there are some changes that will keep me from upgrading. (1) forced to use iTunes 11, yuck! Just yuck! (2) notification center is a step backwards from iOS6 - it's almost useless in my opinion (3) apps inside folders are basically limited to 9 now - scrolling thru pages to see more than that is a real step backwards (4) appearance controls buried inside Settings/General/Accessibility -- why? (5) information in the Music app seems quite cluttered due to information overload (6) How in the world are you suppose to sign out of Game Center?? Oh yeah, go into the Settings app. ??? (7) Spotlight & Notifications use nearly identical swipe motions forcing you to s-l-o-w down to get the correct swipe (8) delete a mail message in iOS6, swipe right or left -- iOS 7 only uses a left swipe (9) how do you delete an email now? I'm still trying to figure that out...

Point is that there are too many faults with the new OS for this user to "upgrade." I'll stick with iOS6 as long as possible & wait for iOS8.