Android mobile phone manufacturers' biggest differentiated competition performance lies in the UI of the system itself. In fact, it is even more than UI, but also various services around the system - this is particularly prominent among domestic manufacturers. Not only is Google's embarrassing position in China, Google Play has no place to gain a foothold, but also because many Chinese mobile phone manufacturers are closely related to the Internet, such as Xiaomi.
Last Saturday, Xiaomi chose a good time to release MIUI 6, instead of mentioning MIUI at the Xiaomi 4 mobile phone launch conference last month, which further demonstrated Xiaomi's emphasis on its own system. What we see from this is not only Xiaomi's continued follow-up to Apple, but also the ambition to further build the Xiaomi ecosystem.
and iOS 7 coincide with
At the MIUI 6 press conference, MIUI head Hong Feng said that this system adheres to the concept of "removing decorative design, content is the essence" - this is the basic concept of flat design ideas that have been popular from the previous year to last year, and this is also what I said when the Metro design of Windows Phone was launched. Then iOS 7 and Android 4.1 both launched a trend of de-metamorphism and pursuing flatness. This trend has affected many system UIs in China, including Meizu Flyme OS, nubia UI, and MIUI.
(lock screen interface, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(Home page, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
is based on the tradition of MIUI that was originally engaged in "rounded rectangle" icons. In the end, MIUI 6 and iOS 7 are "consistent" in design. After all, Xiaomi 4 and iPhone are so similar in appearance on the phone, so we specially found the corresponding interface style of iOS 7 to let all students visit what kind of fit this "consistent" has.
(electronic compass, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(multi-task list, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(control center, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(notification center, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(app folder, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(setting list, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
and iOS The similarity of 7 is reflected in all aspects of the MIUI 6 system. For example, MIUI has also begun to use frosted glass special effects in large quantities, notification center, expand the application folder on the home page, etc. The Home page can be vaguely seen behind the frosted glass background. This is clearly the specialty of iOS 7. iOS 7's control center, application folder expansion, and pull-down notification center use more of these elements, but the default main color of iOS system is blue, while MIUI 6 is bright orange.
(Memorandum, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(Calculator, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(Photo, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
(Calendar, left MIUI 6, right iOS 7)
In terms of functions that can be realized by many system interfaces, MIUI has references to iOS, such as the current multitasking list interface and task switching, which is intuitive and Apple-like, although this tombstone-like interface Windows Many systems such as Phone and webOS have also been used for a long time. There are also styles such as the setting interface style and the battery icon on the top of the system that have a good Apple flavor. As for system applications, the range of images is not very small, such as electronic compass, calendars, photography, calculators, and sticky notes, which have a bit of "heroes have similar views".
More improvements lies in the details
Since Lao Luo has a clean obsession with system manufacturing, the special effects of returning to the homepage can be demonstrated several times at the press conference. As one of the earliest companies in China to make systems, Xiaomi must also be a little "serious". Therefore, this time, MIUI 6 has also made some efforts in system details, which is first reflected in special effects and UI improvements. Except for the system itself, almost all applications have been redesigned in order to achieve a better flat and consistent style, many details have been made more refined.
For example, when deleting an application, the deleted application icon will crack and scatter all over the ground like a stone - this is actually a bit simile, and Hong Feng seemed to be particularly concerned about such details at the press conference; for example, when long pressing the power button to call out the commonly used shortcut switch, if "flight mode" is selected, the plane in the icon will fly away; there is also a clock application, which follows the shape of the compass, and when switching between the alarm clock, always, stopwatch, and timer disks, there will be a pointer toggle animation; when starting the weather application, the temperature curve will transition from a straight line to a curve state, and the precipitation probability and other icons sink to the bottom.
(click on the flight mode and the plane will fly away!)
MIUI 6 system improvements are also more suitable for the taste of modern systems. In addition to MIUI itself, it has not used the second-level menu of drawer applications. This time, the photography application uses gesture operation methods more often. After all, the photography of native Android is fooling users and encouraging users to use gestures: MIUI 6's photo interface swipes to the right to adjust the function menu, slide left to display the filter, slide down to switch the front and rear lenses; in addition, following Lao Luo, the desktop organization function of the Home page is also being enhanced. After zooming in with the two-finger to enter the editing mode, you can move to the "Icon Basket" at the bottom, and then lift it on the corresponding page. Although this method is probably not intuitive enough to Lao Luo's hammer; the notification center will display unimportant information in the taskbar with ellipsis icons, and display important information in different ways; swipe up at any position of the Home page to call out global search, icon positioning, web pages, and application store searches, etc. There are some unintuitive improvements inside the
system. For example, in order to prevent the system from over-consuming power, in addition to the previous alignment wake-up mechanism, a new self-start management and intelligent power saving mode were added; when downloading content on the Internet, a download method similar to Thunder P2SP is adopted. It is expected that Xiaomi system will download applications and multimedia content in the future. However, in the future, it is estimated that there will be an additional Xiaomi user in Starbucks and other places in addition to PCs. The system will also scan the downloaded APK installation files, and if there is a security risk, it can prevent users from installing.
penetrates into the lives of Chinese people
Xiaomi is one of the first domestic manufacturers to start customizing Android systems. It should be known that it is still subject to others by making UI or hardware. The reason why iOS is so popular is largely not because of how excellent the ease of use of this system itself, but because its ecosystem is fully developed. The ecosystem here not only refers to the quantity and quality of applications, but also includes the data services around the system, such as various cloud services, cross-screen devices applications, such as collaboration with iPad and Mac devices, etc. These are important means to cultivate user stickiness.
Some domestic latecomers obviously do not have such strength. Although the quality of the Hammer system itself is quite high, Huanxi Cloud cannot be compared with Xiaomi cloud services for the time being. MIUI 6's cloud service supports 11 data backups including contacts, text messages, albums, WLANs, applications, music, recorders, browsers, etc., and these backup data can naturally be shared with Xiaomi tablets. Xiaomi mobile phones and tablets can now synchronize some content, such as browsing the web with Xiaomi tablet at home, and Xiaomi mobile phones can take this web page away when they go out.
In the future, perhaps Xiaomi can also cooperate with Xiaomi TV and router to expand this ecosystem even more. MIUI plays a central role in this. The cloud service in it shoulders the resource content sharing between several devices. This is what Apple has been working on, but Xiaomi does not have the ability to control Android's own ecosystem. However, according to the characteristics of Chinese users, it can grasp Xiaomi's ecosystem firmly. Therefore, the two applications of Xiaomi Life and Yellow Pages in the MIUI system are Internet portals tailor-made for Chinese users.
In the yellow pages, mi fans can recharge their mobile phones, book hotels, book air tickets, train tickets, find a designated driver, call express delivery, and register in hospitals; Xiaomi Life provides a discount entrance to various services and products in life - Hong Feng said at the end of the press conference that MIUI 6 is to build a Xiaomi Life service platform and build various Internet services for users at the system level. This probably has shown Xiaomi's greatest ambition, which is the essential manifestation of Xiaomi's expectation to penetrate into user life. In a more popular way, this is called O2O, making the Internet a platform for offline transactions, which may also be an important part of the construction of Xiaomi's ecosystem.
Xiaomi Global Vice President Hugo Barra said that excellent designs will eventually be similar. Obviously, Xiaomi 4 and MIUI 6 have done more successfully in this regard. But on the other hand, in addition to the appearance of iOS 7, we also need to see another similarity between Xiaomi and Apple in terms of layout, so as to leave the steps outside the system and equipment, and cultivate real user stickiness. Apple has done a very good job in this regard through various peripherals and its own ecosystem. Now it is refining its home appliances and health layout. Xiaomi is just starting out. Even if it cannot regulate Android as a whole, it can control people's lives in China, and it is the moment when the quarterly mobile phone shipments have jumped to the top in China.
