[tres]

I think what really changed was the departure of Scott Forstall after the death of Jobs & the decision to put Tim Cook in charge.

Remove that someone who didn't just look at software as an accoutrement to hardware -- but as a necessary, functional part of that hardware (skeuomorphism was the natural outcome of this worldview), then replace them with someone who reveres form over function and we end up where we are.

Still missing Scott Forstall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Forstall

[K0SM0S]

I too revere this man as far as design goes. It is my understanding that he's not the best at managing whole products the likes of what Apple sells; my intuition is that he should have joined Google —a true engineering temple of software-first, imho.

But apparently he's taking a (probably much-deserved) time off from tech, so more power to him.