Why does it have to be eye catching? Is it because you want other to think, "whoa, look at his awesome OS??". How about it functions well, does what it needs, and across the board still looks good and is easy to use...enjoy the phone man, not saying you aren't but just enjoy it bro!.
The answer to your first question would be "partly."
Second, I enjoy my phone very much.
HOWEVER, Apple has a tendency to create something great and then fall behind because they don't like to keep up with the competition. Look at OS X's UI. It was great a few years ago, but even as the previews of 10.7 show, it's not changing much. I'm not saying its not a good UI, but it could always be improved.
You are clearly showing a bias towards Apple in your comment. I want you to apply your comment to purchasing a car. Do looks matter? All cars get you to where you need to go and most follow decent safety standards. The fact is that attractiveness is a major component to many purchase decisions. I believe the iOS UI is great and does what it needs to (and more), BUT it needs to keep up with the times and the competition. It needs to evolve to stay in the market.
Apple currently has many advantages over the competition including:
-Greatest number of apps
-Uniformity / Integration
-iPod/iTunes integration
Many of these advantages can easily be taken over by the competition. Apple was the first in this type of market, but it can easily be the first one out. With more and more people buying Android phones (and now WP7), many more apps will be developed for those platforms. Soon, Apple may not have this advantage. As for uniformity, Apple makes both iOS and the iPhone and everything works well with each other. There's no hassle when downloading apps and OS updates. Android sucks at this. BUT, Microsoft has very rigorous standards with their WP7 phones and they have great integration with Office Products and Xbox Live. As for iPod integration, Apple still has a compelling lead. Android sucks. Microsoft has excellent Zune integration in WP7 and the Zune PC app is decent (a lot faster than iTunes), but Apple still controls this realm.
As the gap narrows in respect to iOS advantages over Android and WP7, what incentive do people have to purchase an iPhone. If all the phones have the same features, people are going to look at the phones that "look cool." The iPhone is just going to be another phone in the store.
Now, it wouldn't be a good idea for Apple to change the UI every update, but a show refresh should be done with every new release. However, since its been a few years since iOS came out and nothing has really changed, I believe it would be a great move for Apple if they increased the screen size to 4in, maintained the retina display, and incorporated a fresh UI to maintain on par with competition.
Sorry for the long post. I wanted to make my point without completely bashing Apple. They are a great company and provide an excellent product. I just feel they aren't doing enough.
BTW... Great profile picture. Artie is great. I hope Howard stays in radio for a few more years.
