So why are we comparing ios8 that's been out for about 4months to 7.1.2 that took 7-8 months to polish. iOS 8.0 is/was much better than 7.0 ever was.
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Aha so 6.0 was perfect when released? You either compare .0 versions with another .0 version or you don't compare at all. You can't compare 7.0 with 6.1.6 nor can you compare 8.0 with 7.1.2. It just makes no sense to compare a polished version of iOS at the end of it's cycle with a new version of iOS at the beginning of its cycle.
We're comparing 8.1.3 to 7.1.2. Your argument is invalid. Even by this time last year the 7.1 beta was more of an improvement. Not to mention we already have betas of 8.2 and 8.3 to look at as well.