Apple hasn't had a significant iOS UI change in too long. I know people who have left the iPhone just for that reason. About time.
I do think it would be good to simplify the look of some apps, like Find Friends and Game Center on iPhone, and Calendar and Contacts on iPad.
I believe the recent redesign of the Podcasts app[1] shows what we should expect from iOS 7: less textures, less color, dark gradients – but nothing that could be described as ‘flat design’.
[1] http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/03/hands-on-apples-podcast...
Except for XP to Vista...
Except for Vista to 7...
7 to 8... I'll somewhat grant you, but a lot less so after you hit the desktop.
Vista and 7 look very different. The UI was cleaned up a lot, the taskbar was redesigned again, Live Thumbnails and multitouch support were added.
Let's compare that to OS X: most people won't be able to tell Mountain Lion (released 8 months a go) from Leopard (released in 2007), just by looking at the desktop.
Here are two screenshots. One is Mountain Lion, the other is Leopard. See if you can tell which one is which. http://i.imgur.com/VDVPvV2.jpg http://i.imgur.com/0fG7xNu.jpg
Amazing how much they've improved "under-the-hood" while keeping the basic interface the same.
PS. If you can't tell the difference between the two, look at the dock - the only way I could figure it out is spotting the new/changed app icons (Launchpad, iTunes, etc).
Not sure what relevance multitouch has to the appearance of the UI.
That's like saying that there's almost no difference between XP and 7, mere polishing, because of http://i.imgur.com/yZcifMF.jpg vs http://i.imgur.com/Z4TqGSV.png
Vista and XP looked pretty close. The real difference was the Gadgets: http://i.imgur.com/kYt9Xqm.jpg which can be turned off (and if that's a big difference, well, "Mission Control" and "Launchpad" mean a big difference for OS X).
Compare 10.2 to 10.8. Gone are the pinstripes, much of the jewel-like gleams and candy coating, as well as many gradients and brushed metal. Mountain Lion is far more "flat" than when I started out with Jaguar.
You can walk through the past 12 years of OS X to see how the design language has evolved since the turn of the century: http://www.iotechie.com/macintosh-2/the-12-year-evolution-of...
I don't know if it's possible, but if they're constantly making changes it certainly won't be.
But the UI feels stale after a while. I would argue that a significant UI refresh that peaks the interest of your users and excites them to upgrade is better than appliance level familiarity. If the familiarity is the measure of success then why do car companies constantly redesign their interiors, or why do appliances change their colors or button layouts from year to year?
But at the same time I can't help but feel that progress can only be made with change and at this point Apple can't keep relying on minimal hardware advances to keep their marketshare.
Where is the proof of that? I feel that it's an "internet truth" where early adopters have the loudest voice. Yet Apple is full of cash earned on machines that look almost like their predecessors (iPad 1-4, iPhone 1-3GS & 4-5, similar for the Mac).