Let’s Hope

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In case you've been living under a rock, you know that iOS 7 isn't beautiful. Everyone is talking about how bad it is. Jony Ive Redesigns Things and Episode 1 of Mother Futon News are my favorites.

Anyway, there are countless quotes just like this one:

iOS 7 is so far from done that maybe there is a story here, in that Apple has a mountain of work ahead to get iOS 7 ready for actual release this fall (presumably, coincident with the release of new iPhone and iPad devices). But to judge iOS 7 beta 1 as you would a release version is silly.

— John Gruber

It's hilarious to me that everyone is defending iOS 7. I like Apple a lot. I use and make my living off of iOS everyday. I want it to succeed, but saying this is okay because "it's not done" is silly. It is bad. Let's all accept that.

We used to know Apple for their polish. Remember iOS 1.0 (well then, it was iPhone OS)? It was rock solid. iPhone OS 2.0beta1 was near unusable. That said, it looked great. If I remember correctly, they haven't changed the design (with a few small exceptions) in any of the betas. When 2.0 finally came out, it was rock solid and looked beautiful.

I know iOS 7.0beta1 is a beta. I don't expect things not to crash or for it all to work. The truth is iOS 7's design is subpar for Apple. They can do better.

I really hope they do update the design in the future betas. Some things are kinda nice, but most are just awful. They boast 93% of iOS users are using iOS 6 now. I think it will take them a long time to get iOS 7 that high if it looks like this.

What I'm trying to say is, Apple can do better. I sincerely hope that they do.

Update: After posting this, I've seen lots of tweets like this:

I think this reply sums it up nicely:

Historically they don't iterate on their designs for the public to see. I hope they do. That's all I'm saying.