A regular criticism of Apple is that the company tends to push aesthetics over functionality. I’ve never entirely agreed with this thinking, believing that—for the most part—Apple advocates usability over everything else, and aesthetics form a major part of how usable something is.

However, two recent reports of upcoming Apple products concern me, since it seems Apple is in some cases sacrificing usability for platform consistency.

The first case is in the iPad, where Steve Jobs has reportedly confirmed via email (9To5Mac) that the iPad screen-rotation lock will become a mute button as of iOS 4.2. This matches the functionality on the iPhone and iPod touch, which is presumably why Apple has made the change. However, it doesn’t seem to take into account how people use the various devices; a rotation lock is far more important on the iPad, since the accelerometer is so sensitive. The iPad is also less likely to be used in scenarios where a mute button will be required, unlike the iPhone and iPod touch.

What grates for me in this scenario is that when asked “Are you planning to make that a changeable option?”, Jobs responded “Nope”. In other words, Apple is changing the functionality of a major hardware component of its device, without providing users with a means to revert, despite the button’s functionality being controlled by software. That there won’t be an option buried in the Settings app suggests Apple cares more for platform consistency than anything else. (Note: I’m aware iOS 4.1+ provides a software-based orientation lock by swiping the apps tray, but this is sub-optimal. Not only is this control awkward to access—and will be more so on the larger iPad—but many users won’t even know it exists.)

MacRumors today reports on some equally concerning aspects of Lion (the next version of Mac OS X). According to a reader, the scrollbars are as per iOS (appearing only when needed and fading when they aren’t). This is idiotic from a user-experience standpoint. One of the biggest issues with iOS is that while it’s mostly intuitive, there’s a lot of ‘mystery meat’ navigation. Users have to ‘discover’ things far too often, since navigation and UI components are regularly hidden. Visible scrollbars provide an indication of a document’s size and your location within it; only showing scrollbars temporarily does not enhance usability—it degrades it; it’s also alien to a desktop operating system.

Both these things point to Apple wanting to merge concepts in iOS and Mac OS X at all costs. Some cross-pollination is undoubtedly a good idea—Mac OS X having system-wise auto-save/app-resumption will be a major productivity boost if implemented properly; but Apple must also remember that what works on one system won’t necessarily work on the other—and it should also realise that some things really don’t work from a usability standpoint on iOS as it is, and so welding such concepts to Mac OS X isn’t a great idea.

Steve Jobs announced yesterday that a Mac equivalent to the iOS App Store is coming soon. Naturally, the tech community has rattled off its usual arguments about ‘control’ and ‘openness’ and ‘Steve is a ninja and therefore cannot be trusted’.

Interestingly, though, most developers are positive about this development. Loren Brichter of Atebits/Twitter perhaps sums up best why the Mac App Store is a good thing over on Cult of Mac:

Find developer website
Click download link
Unarchive
Drag to Applications folder
Launch app
Find registration button
Go to developers website
Click buy
Enter credit card information
Click buy
Wait for email
Open license email
Copy license
Paste license

vs.

Click “Buy”

Here we go again. The New York Times asks Will Apple’s Culture Hurt the iPhone? Cue: the usual arguments about how Android’s going to pound Apple’s head into the dirt, because—shock!—Android marketshare is about to leapfrog iOS and there are a billion different devices to choose from.

Newsflash one: Apple doesn’t care about the low-end fights where most of this marketshare battle is taking place. It cares about profits. As the PC industry as shown, marketshare counts for shit, unless you’re also making money from what you’re selling. Apple, by comparison, makes money hand over fist with a relatively small chunk of the market. The same would happen if iOS lost a decent-sized chunk of its mobile share.

Newsflash two: Having ‘only’ one device isn’t a drawback—it’s in many ways a benefit. It simplifies things. Customers dither when faced with choices, and many then take the choice to not buy anything. Also, fewer hardware variations typically means tighter software integration and robust devices.

So, New York Times, to answer your question: Will Apple’s Culture Hurt the iPhone? No.

I grimace every time I go to update apps or download promo codes in iTunes. Writing for mags like Tap! and iPod User, you might imagine I have many apps—and you’d be right. And every time I try to do one of the aforementioned actions, I get an error. Sometimes, it’s a ‘5002’ error, and other times I am bafflingly informed “The item you tried to buy is no longer available”. At the moment, I get six dialog boxes in a row (saying I cannot connect to the iTunes Store) every time I click ‘redeem’ to get promo codes.

If this was just happening to me, that would be bad enough. However, on talking to other iOS device users, it’s clear that’s not the case. Interestingly, though, the app update process is generally smoother on the actual devices. There are occasional issues, but not nearly as many as you get inside iTunes itself.

This is why I’m hoping Apple reveals something ‘magical’ regarding cloud computing very soon indeed. Apple’s building a gigantic data centre, and no-one knows why. I suspect there will be some new web services, and I hope they will be free and aimed primarily at iOS. Sign up for the free service and no more wired sync. No more iTunes errors. Instead, your content would sync across your devices, without you having to do a thing.

Of course, Apple might just announce a new version of iWeb with upgraded web hosting and say “Oh yeah, all you guys having problems with iTunes: tough noogies.”

Gah. I’m so behind the rest of the world. There’s been antennaegate and then there was Ryan Block’s not-at-all-link-bait glassgate that the rest of the tech industry parroted in its typical unthinking manner, without, you know, thinking it might be a good idea to check some of the supposed facts.

I need my own ‘gate’ to become famous (and then, presumably, hated and ridiculed a few hours later, but that’s the price of fame—just ask Jedward), but I don’t even own an iPhone 4 (not that lacking something you’re writing about is a problem for quite a few tech hacks these days).

Any ideas? I was thinking about actually-it-seems-that-the-iphone-4-works-quite-well-gate, but I don’t think that’ll draw in the traffic.