Users Underwhelmed by iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Survey Suggests

[Abazigal]

Who would've thought... Apple needs to stop covering their eyes and take a look at the criticism here.

The general trend I observe here is that this forum seems to have a very poor grasp of what the mass market really wants. I have not been keeping count, but I will say that there is a pretty poor track record when it comes to what the critics here say that Apple needs to do, and what Apple does end up doing (and prospering for it).

For example, many people here still fixate too much on specs and not enough attention is paid to the user experience. I have lost count of how many times the term “threadripper” kept being parroted in countless Mac-related threads last year and frankly speaking, I don’t think they even know what they are talking about.

If this were a horse-betting forum, I would mortgage my entire house and bet everything on the opposing team.

Personally, I feel that the best way of analysing Apple is to still begin with Apple. You have to focus with Apple, and then you move outwards. You start with Apple, and then you analyse the industry that Apple operates in. Instead, what I see a lot of people here still do today is that they just treat Apple as any other company. But Apple does a lot of things differently, and if all you are doing is simply comparing Apple to everyone else and then go “Hey, Apple isn’t following what everyone else is doing, so I don’t think whatever Apple is doing is going to work”, I think they go down the wrong path.

What’s my point? That instead of constantly trying to explain away Apple’s success, we really need to study it, understand it, describe it, and teach it. Not deny that it is happening.

 

[dwaite]

Would never use this gimmick I don’t need to be told what apps I need lol, all my apps are on one page and never changed it’s in folders I don’t wanna ruin the homepage, I dont need focus it’s another thing I would switch off, maybe give us split screen or something that we would want

You can arrange your apps however you want. Put them all in a single folder so you can see your background well for all we care.

Being able to have only one icon was a limitation for how some of us organize apps, however. You don't always have a cool ontology.

Focus is the merger of a lot of existing features such as Do Not Disturb with more customizable behavior around things like notifications. If you never used DND before you probably don't care about focus.

I'll wait someone giving a mock up of split screen on iphone showing how it is feasible before I start wanting it. My understanding is that it is a crapshoot on android. I don't really want features that are going to turn out to be crap (like multiwindow on ipadOS before 15, for example)

 

[George Dawes]

iPad OS does seem to be letting down the particularly powerful m1 version

Like having a Lamborghini and taking the tyres off

 

[dwaite]

Well it’s a huge nothing burger. It may as well been a point update frankly.
All the standout features like live text are things android has been able to do for years. And widgets should have appeared on iPados last year. No reason whatsoever for it not to.

The version number has nothing to do with user-visible features and everything to do with whether they can roll it out without breaking developer apps. Thats why they announce the release which will break apps at their developer conference.

Mouse and Trackpad support for iPad was perhaps its biggest feature in five years, and it landed in a minor release because it didn't break anything.

 

[mrbobbo]

This release has confirmed my opinion that Apple has no interest in enhancing iPadOS to a level where most users can use it as a Mac replacement. I have no idea why.

At some point I will decide my iPhone is good enough for a mobile experience, I’ll sell my iPad mini when it gets too old, and I’ll rely on an m1 MacBooks to actually do anything so I don’t have to also pay for an iPad. It’s really a shame.

iPad is really a pleasure to use, except when you hit a wall, which occurs often enough to be annoying.

Here’s a business use case for a sophisticated user, to illustrate:
. Zoom call
. Use the Apple Pencil with iPad (flat on desk) to: take notes, view participants, share content and view shared content.
. External webcam with microphone, at eye level, so people can see me from the proper angle instead of with ipad camera that is on the flat desk top.

And here are some reasons why iPad can’t do this: cant use external webcam, slide over freezes audio and video, content sharing is limited.

Version 15 advertises nothing to support this use case.

 

[dwaite]

Eh it’s just an update. For me after being on a dev account the iOS is very laggy. I’ve given up trying to design anything.

It's the first developer seed. There's a reason they don't make it a public beta. There's a reason Apple warns not to use it on an essential device like your primary phone.

Also turned off live text as it crashed the camera app every time. Tbh we’ve all seen the end of Apple for a while now. Innovations left the building. I know I’ll end up deleting this later as some arm chair know it all will give their two cents. The only thing that was new in the iPhone 12 was LiDAR. Raise your hand if you’ve used it.

The camera app uses it for rapid focus along with other functions, especially in low-light situations. I suspect well over 90% of owners have benefited from it.

 

[dwaite]

Exactly.

SmartThings has been updated with the "new" widget... and it looks similar to the old widget. And it sorta functions the same.

BUT... it also opens the app every time I perform an action in the widget.

Why?

The whole reason we have widgets is so we don't need to open apps.

Apple has lost the point of widgets.

Thats the trade-off for having them _in_ the home screen. The previous "today" view allowed for total failure because of a bad app eating up memory and CPU/GPU cycles or crashing - you can't have that on the home screen.

Instead the apps have to pre-emptively give the UX they want shown for the widget. The system can't launch a dozen third party apps and have the user wait until they all finish loading and drawing. Instead, the system in the background starts them periodically, asks them what they want to show for their widget, and preps it for the next time the user is on the home screen.

But as a consequence there's no app to interact with or to update the UI - the app is run on the first tap of the widget.

An "interactive" widget on the home screen would have a few second lag both because the app would have to be started in the background before it could handle the action and update the widget. The subset of widgets where that would be a better experience than just launching the app experience itself is pretty slim.

This is BTW why you will never see third party distributed watch faces - the watch face has to be there instantly, 100% of the time, or the watch is broken. Instea you have complications (which have basically always used the same processing model as the new widgets)

 

[Johnny907]

It's the first developer seed. There's a reason they don't make it a public beta. There's a reason Apple warns not to use it on an essential device like your primary phone.

The camera app uses it for rapid focus along with other functions, especially in low-light situations. I suspect well over 90% of owners have benefited from it.

The autofocus on the camera app is F’d because of it, you mean. Lidar needs to be disabled in everything but low light photos, because trying to shoot through glass means you’ll be getting a great picture of the glass itself and probably yourself reflecting instead of whatever is on the other side you were trying to take a photo of.

 

[Mistborn15]

This release has confirmed my opinion that Apple has no interest in enhancing iPadOS to a level where most users can use it as a Mac replacement. I have no idea why.

iPad will always be the sidecar

 

[Johnny907]

iPad will always be the sidecar

The fact that they gimped even that so it only runs in SDR, even if you connect via thunderbolt cable, says it all.

 

[dwaite]

Allow companies like Microsoft to include VBA in Excel and ability to edit said code
Allow companies like Microsoft to include VBA in Word and ability to edit said code

There are no rules against interpreting code in apps - heck, I have a full python IDE on my phone.

 

[dwaite]

Dude it’s so easy, blue tooth keyboard and mouse do exist. Or how about the magic keyboard. It took me 10 seconds to come up with a simple and practical answer.

So you'd be happy to set up a partition and boot into "macOS Bootcamp"?

 

[Ubuntu]

It looks like they were given some slack considering COVID and I think that’s reasonable. I just wish iPadOS had a bit more of a show of direction beyond the multitasking improvements.

 

[Bubble99]

Every apple event now is kinda boring, all I wanted was a way to remove the dam home bar which puts me off using my devices as it’s always in the way and I can’t stop seeing it, it would look like so much more clean without it, and for heavens sake change the overall look at least give us 3D apps like big sur the overall flat look since 2013 is boring

What do you mean get rid of the home bar?

 

[dwaite]

The autofocus on the camera app is F’d because of it, you mean. Lidar needs to be disabled in everything but low light photos, because trying to shoot through glass means you’ll be getting a great picture of the glass itself and probably yourself reflecting instead of whatever is on the other side you were trying to take a photo of.

LIDAR goes through glass (because light)

 

[BlueMoose]

I had hoped that this reply makes it to page 14... but unfortunately, still made it on page 13 and not 14

because I was about to comment on how I would not want to buy iPhone 13 under any circumstances.

 

[Whathappened]

It is interesting cause Jeff on 9to5Mac somehow finds 300+ features to talk about for 2 hours. Hardly considered underwhelming imo. No idea what other people would actually want.

Nothing, smartphones in general are pretty perfect. Almost nobody cares if there is a new feature here and there, people just use their phones and there is not much room for improving them.
The 300 changes might be interesting for nerds and of course apple has to continue improving small bits, but that won’t receive any excitement from regular folks.

 

[dwaite]

It looks like they were given some slack considering COVID and I think that’s reasonable. I just wish iPadOS had a bit more of a show of direction beyond the multitasking improvements.

UX wise, iPadOS and macOS are on a collision course.

Basically, people asking for the ability to run macOS apps on ipad will continue to be disappointed - apple has already committed to the opposite approach (running ipad apps on macOS).

Instead, the trend is:
1. If there is a change that would make a native iPad app look more at home on the mac, tweak the mac UI (see macOS 11)
2. If there is a feature gap where a ported iPad app doesn't feel native on the mac, add a similar feature to iPadOS (mouse and keyboard support, keyboard shortcuts/navigation and full event support, multitasking so apps need to understand multiple windows)
3. When possible, give the two the same integration points for apps (widgets, sharing, actions, siri, shortcuts, etc) - the odd one out this year was the mail extension support being macOS only.

 

[MowgliWolf]

Bah, in this climate it’s not surprising to be honest.
To be remotely exciting to those of us made exhausted and cynical from this last couple of years, it’d have to make you coffee, massage your feet, translate brainwaves into actions and walk the dog to boot

 

[cupcakes2000]

Worse yet, Apple released a Pro line of iPads with the power needed to really take them to the next level. The potential, and hope, was there that Apple would release a powerhouse of an iPadOS to go with them so they could be used as true tablet computers. However, Apple clearly sent a loud message that the iPad Pros will remain entertainment toys forever more. It is painfully clear now that Apple will never take the hardware, which is very capable, and turn it into a professional tool and not just a toy for customers with the money to buy expensive, overpriced toys.

I use mine for productivity. I run my photography business from it, and that’s how I earn my living and feed my family. I also use pro apps to refine my shots, create advertising images and video, contact and meet with my clients, show my portfolios, attach it to my Mac as a control surface for apps, take hand written notes and convert to text, scan stuff, sketch and draw, watch movies on the plane, strap it to the back head rest on a long car journey so the kids can watch movies, read a book by the pool, play games. It’s pretty versatile, a big old list of stuff that it does better than a ‘real’ computer- and it’s hard to take seriously comments like yours because of that.
In reality, the iPad is far from a toy, although it also makes a very good toy, ironically. There are plenty of people that like to dismiss it as one though, because terminal.

widgets t be interactive like instead of opening apps you can use the app in the widget that would be a game changer it cant be that hard

That’s a dev decision I think. For example the PCalc widget is a working calculator.

All I want for iOS 15 is a podcast app that works.

There is an Appstore on iOS, there are some on there 👍 I like overcast.

Dude it’s so easy, blue tooth keyboard and mouse do exist. Or how about the magic keyboard. It took me 10 seconds to come up with a simple and practical answer.

So what happens to the apps I’m working on on the iPad at this time then? All just disappears and turns into a whole different OS?

1. Create different profiles on the phone like your computer (great if you have kids)

2. Customization (everything can be tweaked)

3. You don't need an app for everything you do (i.e when adding a loyalty card to Google Pay, you just need to scan the bar code and its in your wallet)

4. When you go to the airport and your flight is late, at a glance displays it on your screen (again no app needed)

Shall I keep going?

Keep going? You haven’t even said anything but minor irrelevancies yet.

Apple's software has been mediocre at best for a few year now, same with HW. Seems the only major innovations coming from Apple is the fact they change the size of their hw and up their prices and people keep buying Apple products.

They just introduced a best in class desktop SOC.

 

[jgbr]

Good.

Many of us have been asking Apple to slow down on on features and concentrate on stability and polish. Judging from the change list and the early betas, that is what they are doing this year. I’m happy with that.

I bet the list of bugs in Monterey will be long and some ancient. Your faith in them to polish is misplaced.

at the very least MAC OS needs to be slowed down from yearly releases and bugs properly squashed.

 

[nexusrule]

I think the iPad not being able to use 16g of ram is a problem as well as
the pro apps and pro functions are just not there.
Why buy a newer iPad when the 2018 or 2019 will do just as much?
And iOS 14 messes with your playlists, does 15 do that too?

Because there are people who don't have a 2018 or 2019 iPad?

 

[Bubble99]

The fact is, literally no matter what Apple (or any company) introduces, there will ALWAYS be people finding something to complain about. You just can’t please everybody, especially those who have unrealistic expectations

What happen is there is sub set of people here that want iPadOS to have control like Windows, MacOS or Linux and that not going to happen if any time soon or ever. That not what the iPad was targeted at.

The iOS and iPadOS is most lock done device compared to any other OS for security, safety and type of people lots and lots of kids and grandma and grandpa using iPad.

You cannot go to web site and download and install apps or have friends send you a link to their file sharing web site and copying the iTune music and movies to folder app on your iPad and copy or rip DVD by UBC-C hub and change config file and install themes and copying save games. Or right click on file and click on open this file in this app or this other app.On windows I could right click on JPG file and open it in windows paint or GIMP. Or manage your own network and servers. Or use command line to only copy x and Y files to Z location. Or command line to rename all files x to name G.

These features are beyond 98% of people that use iPad. These are power users, nerds and network administrators and people mostly using windows or Linux.

Most average person would be at lost how to use OS and say this is not simple OS but very complex OS and cripple the OS in a week.

Apple has not target the iOS and iPadOS for those people. Even OSX doing leopard and snow leopard where it was way easier to dive into the OS system files and change theme and app icons and MacOS lock this done way more after.

iPadOS and even to a degree MacOS now would never have the level of control windows and Linux have.

If you looking to control every thing about OS and are power user or nerd or network administrators than iPad is not for you and even to degree MacOS now.

And if you think Power Shell, bash and command lime is coming to iPad. No it not. These are programmers and network administrators folks. The iPad not target for those people.

 

[AndiG]

Me: Hi Apple, how can I pair my Apple Watch heart rate monitor with my cycling computer?
Apple: "Look we have these awesome new Watch Faces"

 

[gcf1]

Users appear to be underwhelmed by Apple's upcoming iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 updates, according to the findings of a new survey by SellCell.

The survey asked 3,000 iPhone and iPad users, evenly split between men and women, aged 18 or over in the United States, what they thought of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and the naming of the upcoming iPhone 13 lineup.

Over 50 percent of all of the survey's respondents said that the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 updates are only "slightly" or "not at all" exciting. 28.1 percent rated the updates "somewhat" exciting, but as few as 19.3 percent are "extremely" or "very" excited about them.

Within iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, 23 percent of users said that the most exciting upgrade is ID cards in the Wallet app, 17.3 percent are most excited about enhanced Spotlight search, and 14.2 percent are most excited about new Find My features.

Very few respondents were enamored with many of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15's new features. Less than one percent of respondents thought that iMessage's "Shared with You" feature, Health app upgrades including fall-risk metrics and data sharing, and improvements to Apple Maps with more transit details and AR walking directions were the best new features. Likewise, FaceTime app improvements with Spatial Audio, screen sharing, grid view, and portrait mode, the redesigned notifications system, and Focus statuses only attracted around five percent of respondents.

When asked what features respondents thought should have been added in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, 32.3 percent said that there should have been interactive widgets, 21 percent said that there should have been always-on display features, 14.9 percent said that there should have been Pro apps such as Xcode or Final Cut Pro for the iPad, and 13.2 percent said that there should have been better external display support for the iPad.

Beyond the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 updates, the survey also investigated triskaidekaphobia, a superstitious fear of the number 13, around the naming of the upcoming iPhone 13. As many as one in five iPhone and iPad users said that they would be actively put off by the "iPhone 13" moniker.

Respondents were also asked how they thought Apple should name its upcoming series of iPhone models. Interestingly, most responses indicated that the devices should not be called the "iPhone 13." 38 percent said that Apple should call its next smartphone series simply "iPhone (2021)," 26 percent thought that the "iPhone 13" was the best name, and only 13 percent said that they would like to see the devices called the "iPhone 12S."

Article Link: Users Underwhelmed by iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Survey Suggests

Let's see - in iOS 14 they made the podcast app even more unusable than it was (and now they want you to pay for content). The open iPhone with a mask feature was hyped, but it's pretty much a kludge that requires an apple watch. Pretty much all the other stuff they are talking about is fluff and user interface improvements which make iOS harder to use. I mean, does anyone really three finger swipe for anything?