Evolution or revolution?

Simplicity over complexity. Usability over increased functionality. Form over function.

As improved devices are released year after year in a seemingly endless litany of new, shiny and ever more impressive numbers we all scramble like obedient consumers to have the latest and greatest CPU (is it a 805, 810 or 815? I forget. Which one overheats again?) in our pocket. With each iteration of what is essentially the same solution to problems we didn't even know we had, the major phone and tablet companies are locked in a battle to outdo each other and the result is new features, new buttons to push and new, more efficient ways of doing things.

The problem is this: With great functionality comes greatly reduced user experience. In other words as we increase complexity we also increase complexity.

They know this. Apple, Google, Samsung, HTC and their brethren are well aware that they are in danger of breaking the immediately accessible nature of their devices as they work hard to have more cool things to talk about, but what option do they have?

Some companies, Motorola comes to mind, have attempted to break the cycle. The original Moto X was designed to do just this: reduce the specs, reduce the price but increase usability for the average phone user. It worked too. The device was a critical victory, people bought it and loved it, and it's about a spawn it's 3rd revision (although its interesting that since the first version the Moto X has become the same sprint to the highest specs as all the others). A few notable exceptions notwithstanding though most cell phone and tablet designs seem less concerned with whether I'll enjoy using them than they are with the PPI of the screen and the benchmark scores of the CPU.
The solution, as with most things technical, lies in software. Motorola's headline stealing efforts were almost all software changes, as is HTC's Blinkfeed and Google's Now app. Make the hardware as Skynet-like as you see fit, but it is in the software design where you are defining the kind of experience I will have with my device. This one fact is why the release of iOS9 is as big a deal, if not bigger, as the release of the iPhone 6.

The trouble is that in software we are still iterating. Yes Apple, Siri now tries to predict what you want instead of reacting to you (like Google Now kinda does), and Apple Maps now tells me which bus to catch (which Google Maps has done for ages). Yes you have an app which can summarise all my news, social media and messages in a pretty interface so I don't have to spend all those precious minutes reading individual apps (like HTC's Blinkfeed has done for two phone generations). We're really excited about these awesome changes, honest. All of these things are improvements but they're also iterations. Refinements. Some of them catch you up with your competitors and some put you a little ahead, but they are refinements still.

Evolution and not revolution.

Now, don't get me wrong. Every phone or OS release cannot and should not be a revolution. Ideas need refinement and improvement. As people use your awesome new feature they will tell you what it does well and what it does badly, and then you can change it a bit and send it back out. This is the essence of all good software design and there's nothing wrong with it. Eventually it's not going to be enough though. We are starting to get phone fatigue. We are beginning to tire of the same device released year after year with minor refinements and a shiny new advertising campaign, like this years version of Fifa on the Playstation, and I think we're beginning, somewhere in the back of our minds, to want that revolution.

If you asked most smartphone users what change they'd like to see most in their device I'm willing to bet that the majority of them will scream "make the battery last longer". The time is ripe for someone to come along with a simple easy to use phone that has 3 day battery life and blow all their competitors away. It's coming. I can feel it.

If there's one thing that Apple always did well it's design. Their devices were easy to use, pretty to look at and (to use a tired phrase) they just worked. As Apple continues to chase Google's open, configurable and frankly intimidating Android market share they are in danger of losing this, and the constant noise of refinement and iteration seems to me to be a road with no turns heading straight to complexity town.

I have an Acer C720 Chromebook. It's been a trooper for me. I've had to change the screen a couple of times, but other than that it's put up with whatever abuse I've thrown at it with quiet resignation and just kept truckin'. I'm typing this on it right now in fact. Me though? I'm a Linux guy. After 20 years as a Linux engineer and as an obsessive tinkerer I'm pretty sure if you cut me open you'd find penguin all through my middle. Because of this I keep replacing Chrome OS with Ubuntu on my trusty C720 (that's right I said replacing... I commit... no dual boot nonsense for this kid). I do it all the time depending on what version of Linux I feel like trying. I did it 2 days ago. Here's an odd thing though; no matter how often I install Linux on this thing I keep putting Chrome OS back on it. It has Chrome OS on it right now. It goes against every fibre in my being to replace Linux with Chrome OS, but I keep on doing it time and time again. Why is this? Well, because it just works.

In the middle of all the chaos and noise of the consumer technology industry it is Google, and not Apple who to my mind have the best "it just works" platform. I lift the lid, it does what I want it to do simply and quickly and then I get on with my life. There is literally nothing I would change about Chrome OS (apart from the ability to connect to my Windows shares from the Files app. Oh hurry up Google... we've been literally asking for years). I like it just the way it is and it just works.

As Apple work hard to improve iOS and chase the Android feature set they are in danger of losing the one thing that they traditionally did better than anyone else: simple, beautiful easy to use products. Whether this was as a result of Steve Jobs' leadership, or just an inevitable symptom of the industry as a whole, I certainly see no indication that this is changing in this years WWDC.