Apple is apparently working on massive redesigns of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Here’s Bloomberg’s original report (paywalled) and 9to5 Mac’s summary.
Bloomberg’s headline calls it “dramatic.” 9to5 quotes a snippet of “the biggest revamp since iOS 7,” which is quite the tall order.
I’d like to go on record that I actually liked the iOS 7 redesign, or at least what it eventually turned into. The previous skeuomorphic language was cute and all, but I found it annoying when trying to figure out which playful bits of an app I could tap. A lot of non-techy folks I’ve worked with over the years found it flat-out frustrating. I also felt large bits of fake leather and notebook binding rings to simply be a waste of space. But I digress.
Apple has a lot of spinning plates in the air, and some of them have already slipped. Arguably the most important features of Apple Intelligence—the cornerstone of this year’s product upgrade and the pitch all over billboards and TV ads to buy an iPhone 16—was just delayed last Friday into Apple’s next product cycle, which likely starts around June with WWDC, if not later.
Remember ‘the next generation of CarPlay’ that we saw in 2022? That was supposed to debut in 2024? It quietly no-showed and it took Apple almost a month to publicly comment on it.
I could talk about what feels like a freshly souring sentiment I’ve seen across large Apple communities like r/Apple, r/iOS, and r/iPad. Maybe you could point out they are barely a drop in Apple’s billion-user bucket.
And maybe the timing of this ‘leak’ about Apple massively redesigning its three major platforms—right after a disastrous weekend news cycle about a high-profile failure to deliver a tentpole product feature—is just a coincidence.
