Is iOS 7 Innovative?

All the buzz in the tech world so far this week has been heavily occupied by Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference that took place Monday morning in San Francisco. In usual Apple fashion, they put on a pretty good show and had some shiny new stuff to present. The headliners of the keynote were iOS 7, iWork for iCloud, OS X Mavericks, iTunes radio, new Macbook Air, and a sneak peak at the completely redesigned Mac Pro. Seeing that our bread and butter is mobile, I am going to focus on iOS 7.

Perhaps the most drastic update since the original iPhone OS release, iOS 7 is completely redesigned. With an emphasis on simplicity, Senior Vice President Jony Ive has rethought every detail of not only how the OS looks, but how it performs and interacts. Every single app has been refreshed for the operating system upgrade, along with a new control center, and improved multi-tasking to name a few.

I had the chance to experience iOS 7 firsthand with a beta version of the operating system on one of our devices. Overall, I like the way that it interacts. Can't say I'm crazy about the colors, but it seems pretty small on the scale of things. Maybe they'll come out with an alternate color scheme before its release in the fall?

Our favorite new updates are: new camera features, calendar and weather app redesign, and the messaging experience. Not only does the camera have new features, but it is streamlined and simplified. Simply slide through to go between video, photo, square photo (with built in filters that show in real time), and panoramic photos. The calendar and weather apps have beautiful lines and work intuitively. The display of the message app has also improved in a similar fashion, but not as drastically as the aforementioned features.

Although certainly different, it is hard to say that iOS 7 is innovative. It seems that Apple took a few notes from Windows Phone and Android in the functionality of the OS. Because it has barely been released, there will definitely be some iterations and improvements in the future. I like the direction they're moving in, and knowing Apple they will most likely make it their own? I sure hope so!

Check out what inspired and shaped iOS 7 here.