The much anticipated Apple iOS 7 beta received both positive and negative feedback after its first public showing, with consumers being more positive and media and tech critics being more negative. In the face of a mostly negative critical reception of its next generation iOS beta, Apple says that the iOS 7 will likely undergo major changes before its final release.
The initial impressions during the WWDC keynote, where the beta was presented, were merely snapshots of works in progress. Nonetheless, they were intended to show how Apple wanted the next big step of its iOS line to look like.
Apple did not mince words when describing the iOS 7 to be "stunning," with a "refined...cleaner, simpler look" to its typography and an "elegant color palette" to match.
The critics matched Apple's eloquence. The Atlantic used the words "blinding," "harsh," and the straightforward adjective "ugly," leaving little room for lighter interpretation. VentureBeat couldn't stomach to call it a redesign and just said "it's a pretty coat of paint." The Verge says it's inconsistent and confusing.
Since 2007, the iOS look and feel has been static, with the major changes in the software being the 2008 introduction of the App Store and the 2010 launch of the first iPad. Now the OS itself goes under the microscope and the scalpel, and so far the opinions of the professional designers and critics are not pretty.
The reviews and comments on both sides of the fence aren't surprising, however, given that the iOS 7 is set to be the most significant change to the iOS since the 2007 introduction of the iPhone, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Jony Ive, Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, led his team in an effort to dismantle everything that the iOS has become over the course of its six previous iterations. They tore down everything from the UI to the way the phone delivers UX, and reinvented the entire OS, so much so that during his WWDC keynote, Apple exec Craig Federighi said that getting iOS 7 for your phone "is like getting an entirely new phone," but one you are still quite familiar with.
It remains to be seen how the critics will take to the final version of the Apple iOS 7.
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