The UI of iOS has remained pretty much the same as the day Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone to the world in 2007. Apple has long thought if it ain't broke, don't fix it; this has been Apple's downfall in the past when it was king of the PC world, back in the day. Mac OS 9 had basically the same UI as previous versions while Microsoft was beginning to ship Windows with overhauled UIs that appealed to consumers. It wasn't until Steve Jobs returned to the company he founded and got fired from that Mac users would finally see a major overhaul of Mac OS. Samsung, take note and watch; this is how you put on a show. Steve Jobs announced Mac OS X at MacWorld in January 2000. The reactions from the audience speak for itself, they wanted an updated Mac OS UI and Apple finally gave it to them.
It's time for Apple to do the same with iOS. Apple needs to do something similar with the release of iOS 7, as six years is a long time in the tech world to keep things looking largely unchanged. Apple is rumored to be giving iOS 7 an overhaul after it ousted Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall in October and put Jony Ive in charge of UI. Apple announced in October, "Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design." These Mobile Safari concept images by German designer Brent Caswell give Safari a clean, updated look and add some useful features without straying too far from what millions of iOS users are already familiar with.
In the renderings, the designer has added a feature already found in Chrome that combines the address bar and search bar into one field, saving some real estate in the process. Bookmarks get folders with favicons, providing a nice visual tweak for organizing and managing bookmarks in Safari. Bookmarks can also be shared through iCloud, while having a "Bookmark Stream" which works like Photostream, sending you a notification when someone shares a link with you. Tab management also gets a nice update by displaying pages in a grid so users can see recent sites on one page instead of having to scroll through multiple pages, a feature which has remained basically unchanged since the original iPhone. There are also options to easily change text size, brightness, fonts, and themes using Safari's Reader functionality.
These are only renderings, but they give a good glimpse at what Apple might have in store for iOS 7 users. Apple knows millions of users are familiar with and love the UI of iOS but it's time to give it an update. Do you think these types of features are something Apple would add to iOS 7, or are you hoping for an even bigger overhaul? Let us know in the comments.
