The message that the demonstration conveyed, was that if you are one of the millions whose only exposure to Apple is an iOS device then you will also know how to use OSX Lion. This is critical to getting OSX to 10% overall market share and beyond.
Unlike iOS, and despite it's reputation, OSX usability could best be described as "it sucks less than Windows for most tasks". In terms of what we saw in the demonstration, game developers of the popular World of Warcraft would understand that while iOS is a starting area to learn how to use a system we got a glimpse of how Apple will transition users to the mid level and advanced content that is OSX. Lion presents as another usability iteration, and just like developers changing gaming mechanics to retain the interest of users as they move out of the starting area and up levels, it has marginal benefit to existing users who are already on the advanced content and productive in the OS.
So what are the implications for new users in the announcements thus far.
App StoreThe app store is a clear winner that says to users that the Mac is going to be as easy to get stuff on as your phone. No more putting in long registration keys and stumbling through dodgy sites, just click to purchase and install in one step. Guaranteed we'll see Microsoft scrambling to get something out well before the expected 2012 release of Windows 8.
Large developers are not the primary target of the app store. They already have good retail distribution channels, infrastructure, and marketing to back them up.
Instead, like it has done for iOS the app store is a boon for smaller developers with a good idea who won't have to wrestle with having their own poor virtual storefronts, release and update infrastructure. Instead developers can focus on marketing and development, and let Apple close the deal with 1 click purchasing, installation, and updates. Having every app phone home for updates is pretty pedestrian compared with a store app that checks just once for all your apps. This is one area where open source repositories used in Debian or Red Hat are well ahead of the game. It pretty much puts the final nail in the shrinkwrapped software box market.
Developers tend to moan about how little money people make from the App store, but developing is no different to any other creative endeavour like music or writing; almost no-one makes significant money except for a few that make truck loads. The key to the store is that it makes a few lucky or good developers a lot wealthier than they would have otherwise been had the store not existed, and increases the overall market.
Watching new users with OSX, most gloss over the applications stack on the dock. It doesn't exactly invite you to open it, and with stacks it lacks the ability to be organised arbitrarily by the user. I'm a big fan of using Command - Enter to type out the name of the app I want to launch, but bringing the iOS interface works as a nice happy medium between the chaos that can be Finder and the rigid organisation of stacks. This is a big plus in getting iOS users past the starting area of the dock, but I'm thanking the Apple gods that they didn't put the icons on the desktop.
I am however very curious about the way the folders will actually work. Do they reflect the actual folders or are they something in the Launchpad app?
Mission Control
I'm a big fan of Expose but never really found a way to use Spaces effectively. Mission Control sounds like something that will give an engineer a woody, but the success or failure of the mission will rest on the implementation of keyboard and other mouse shortcuts. As we saw in the demo, the magic mouse is still a little clumsy for gesture based behaviour, and once you get past zoom and scroll, people don't actually use the gestures enough to be effective. A trackpad is the way to go if you're serious about a gesture Mission Control, but not enough to make people switch from the comfort of a mouse. Having used a trackpad almost exclusively since it's release I've only missed using a mouse when switching into vmware and windows. Since iOS users now get the function of multiple screens and we have the necessary screen real estate, it'll be interesting to see if people use it.
Full Screen mode & Autosave
Refugees from windows can stop clicking that little green button now. It's never going to be as big as you'd like it to be. Or is it? I'm a little confused about whether they've changed the functionality as some have suggested or just 'blessed' the full screen button as being set in stone at the bottom left of the app for apps beyond Quicktime. Unlike the Windows maximise function the green + button is pretty inconsistent between apps so you end up not using it because it doesn't always behave as you'd predict (if at all), and is only marginally better than the drag re-size function.
I assume that auto-save and resume means opening the the same document or place you were in when you hit the red 'close' button. It pretty much makes the yellow minimise (-) button superfluous in most single document apps. Multi document apps don't currently work too well with minimise anyway. If you minimise to the app then a right click or Expose are the most common but not intuitive ways to see what is minimised, and if you minimise to the document side of the dock then it is too small to see which document you want to restore. Windows 7 does this better, as does the OSX app windowshade, but I think iOS points to a better solution that can translate to OSX.
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| iOS multi-doc |
On iOS the multi-document button works pretty effectively in Safari and I could see a variation of it coming to Lion. Probably the button would fade the background to black and tile the documents with swipe or arrow buttons to flow through them, and click or enter to select. Pretty simple compared with the current arrangement. With full screen mode, resume, Mission Control, large screens, and a multi-document button would we miss minimise?
In short we don't know much. Finder, and dealing with networked computers and devices other than OSX are big unknowns, and don't get me started on iTunes. Apple got themselves into that mess, making it the bridge to iOS devices, and I can't wait to see how they houdini their way out of it.
If I was going to make a prediction I would think that Finder and the way applications deal with files are going to be a big focus of Lion. That and bringing gaming up to speed, now that they have Steam on board.
I'm pretty sure the pricing for upgrades is going to be super aggressive again. If I had to pin the tail on the donkey I would say that it will probably be US$29 again. Microsoft tries desperately to protect their cash cow that is Windows like Telstra in Australia did with fixed line broadband, but the game has moved on to the applications, and content. Existing users are going to be justifiably unenthusiastic about the likely nominal gains from Snow Leopard to Lion, and will need the pricing incentive to update. It's not like Vista which people were gagging to get off, or jumping from the cat on an ark that was early OSX to Tiger or Leopard.
King of the jungle? well, we'll have to wait and see.
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