[steven_h]

What alternate style launchers would you recommend then rather than the standard grid of icons? I agree that it doesn't look very good with few icons and has a bad UX with too many icons, but it seems hard to find something that fits perfectly in the middle.

[glassx]

Twitter, Tweetbot, tumblr, Instagram, Skype and Wunderlist (my most used apps) all get away with the 5 icons on the bottom. They mostly contain 4 main options, plus another screen with configuration and advanced options.

Tweetbot's fourth button allows you to rapidly change its behavior, it's fast enough and the best UI I've seen so far.