>iOS 7 is a decluttering of the most exciting, profitable, desirable mobile operating system available. It’s a shift away from artefact, and back to essence. It indicates a clarity of vision, and a continued willingness to pursue simplicity ruthlessly.

>The new iOS is designed for a different environment, and a different maturity of mobile user: one who recognises simplicity for what Jony Ive believes it is. Not something as pedestrian as familiarity or consistency for its own sake, but rather focus and clarity.

Then why does the homescreen look like a high resolution version with garish colors of this from >20 years ago?

http://images.yourdictionary.com/images/computer/_PROGMAN.GI...

If you really want to see "a continued willingness to pursue simplicity ruthlessly." compare the homescreens of Windows Phone with all other mobile platforms including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Jolla, UbuntuOS, Symbian.

For example of a real transition, see Windows Mobile to Windows Phone.

>Too many interfaces run immediately to the well-worn toolbox of simulation and explicitness, imposing a cognitive straitjacket not only on the user, but also the designer. We too easily forget that the only thing that matters to people are their goals: their own tasks, and content. With limited attention, we want to devote our focus to what’s important, rather than distractions and artifice masquerading as design traditions.

I thought "Content over chrome" and "Authentically digital" were Microsoft's buzzwords.

>Apple’s philosophy – and particular genius – has always been in sieving the demands of users, technologies and the cultural zeitgeist, and finding the right hundred things to remove for every one thing to keep.

It's all hardware design guru Ive's genius, indeed, to come up to speed with state-of-the-art UI design in just 7 months and come out with this, which looks like Android fonts and Metro UI had a baby that was dipped in fluorescent colors.

Sure, Android and Windows phone copied a whole lot from iPhone, but I don't see the blogosphere give them credit for, say the one click app installs, and calling them geniuses for doing so.