14 DAY TRIAL // You might know Federico Ciccarese from his brilliant iDevice concepts around the web. His vision somewhat resembles that of Jony Ive, Apple’s own designer.
Federico is no stranger to Apple and its design culture, and he believes innovation is not at home anymore.
Known for his various concepts of unannounced Apple products (such as this recent iPhone 6 mockup), the guy agreed to do an email interview with us to share his thoughts on iOS 7.
As a designer, he should know what goes where and what doesn’t.
“I start by saying that anything improves iOS 6,” he tells us. “It has dragged on for so long that to hear the applause would have been enough.”
He believes “iOS 7 is better than its predecessor, it is more complete and modern. But I expect more from Apple,” he says. “What is missing? Again, innovation," he laments.
"I'm afraid Apple has lost the courage to dare, to risk. Users perceive it even unconsciously, the result is a lowering of the personality and prestige,” says the Italian creative.
“I think it's better to err with your head high than to follow the choices of your competitors,” he adds, suggesting he too believes Apple has borrowed this time around.
Federico is convinced Apple has lost a lot of its dare along with Steve Jobs, the company’s visionary genius, co-founder, and CEO.
“The strength of Jobs was to believe in his choices with conceit and arrogance, the right ones as the wrong ones. If you associate a good taste with that, then you’ve won!” he says.
He believes Apple will only regain its reputation by daring.
Back to iOS 7, the designer says he wishes Apple did something different this time around. A lot different.
He says that, in its current form, the OS forces the user to “stop to push the icons for information."
“I see a future where the system collects content from services and offers them in a totally integrated manner,” Federico concludes.
While his idea may not be farfetched, we probably have a long way to go before smartphones get this kind of software.
But hey, that's why designers love to think up concepts.