Comment by grbalaffa

Skeuomorphic vs. flat is a red herring. Either one can be tastefully or tastelessly done. Today's iOS 7 unveil was unfortunately the latter.

The sad truth is: once Steve Jobs passed on, the quality of designs coming out of Apple started to decline. The ousting of Scott Forstall and the rumored eschewing of anything resembling skeuomorphic design was heralded as the coming of a great new era, however now that we can see the first results it's apparent that Apple is no longer capable of producing great design at all, no matter where it lands on the skeu vs. flat spectrum. The new designs are still as ugly as the Forstall-era stuff; it's just a different kind of ugly.

It makes me really sad, because the original iPhone was an incredible triumph that led the way of the industry for the next several years. I fear we will not see something of such high quality for a very long time after this. Nothing will change until there is once again someone in place at the top of Apple's hierarchy who can enforce the notion of good taste, regardless of the current fashion or style.