( CNN ) -- A few million iPhone users woke up to a new operating system this week , the much-heralded iOS 7 , the biggest change in Apple 's smartphone operating system since the phone was first released in 2007 . It 's a different look and feel , for sure . But for those who may fear having to learn some whole new way of using a phone , rest assured : Not much has been fundamentally altered . It 's still very much the same operating system you 've made a part of your life . That 's really the news here : Apple is taking its users one baby step toward the next mobile platform . And while it may indicate something about where Apple hopes to bring smartphone interfaces in the future , this incremental step may say more about Apple 's diminishing ability to make changes in our computing lives by decree . Back in the Steve Jobs era , Apple could force its dedicated user base to go anywhere Steven told them . The original , VW Bug-inspired iMac was the first major desktop that did not offer a floppy drive . Users grumbled and panicked , but they did as Steven told them , and now we live in a world where many readers do n't even know what a floppy drive is . Then Steve took away serial ports , and so on , continually forcing new changes on Apple users for their own good . Consumers even lined up to purchase the iPad on Steve 's command ; they did n't have any real need for the thing but trusted that Steve knew best . The ongoing success of the tablet seems to suggest that he did . Apple 's new operating system does n't ask users to make such a leap of faith . Yes , the new iOS is brighter and more colorful and the icons are simpler and less three-dimensional . It looks like a new phone . And the fonts are more streamlined and communicative . Instead of using lines to separate things , font shapes and sizes are used more effectively to delineate items in lists -- making everything a bit more airy . Most significantly , the `` things '' depicted in the new OS look less like things . There are no little binders drawn on notebooks , no details on buttons , no leatherette address book and no shadows behind pages . If anything , Apple is weaning us off the metaphorical desktop , trying to bring us into a virtual universe where we no longer depend on the familiar anchors of the `` real '' world to relate effectively to our applications . On a smartphone , an address book is not really an address book , after all . It 's an application that lets us search through data about our contacts . A notepad is not a pad with paper ; it is a way of saving text . While the real world metaphors initially helped us understand what all these things were for , apps need n't be bound by the limits of real world devices . For the computing world to develop further , it needs to be freed of the obligation to do everything in ways that reflect real world processes . Perhaps surprisingly , Microsoft already accomplished this last year . With nothing to lose , the company worked with Nokia to develop a smartphone and tablet operating system called Metro that no longer has a desktop , as we traditionally think of it . Instead of depicting icons against a background , Metro breaks the screen up into tiles that deliver live feeds of whatever is happening in the apps . Streams of tweets , incoming e-mails or changing weather all flow from their tiles in real time . Meanwhile , the apps themselves , once opened , have almost no lines or grids in them at all . The incoming e-mail list ( there 's no in `` box '' anymore ) is broken up with space , not lines . Everything is accomplished with innovative font selection and sizing . Microsoft 's operating system represents the future of computing . It was also a market failure , at least in the short run . That 's because Microsoft does n't have the power or charisma to demand that users follow it into the unknown . People followed Steve Jobs because they believed in his vision -- even if they did n't know what it was . Microsoft does n't enjoy that benefit of the doubt . But today , without Jobs , neither does Apple . That 's why -- instead of dragging us kicking and screaming into the future Microsoft has already developed -- Apple is trying to lead us there one easy step at a time . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Douglas Rushkoff .
Douglas ##s : Apple 's new iOS represents incremental step into future . He says new iOS is right for a digital world ; it does n't rely on manipulation of physical objects . Apple is following him in making this change in approach , Rushkoff says . Rushkoff : Apple uses ability it had under Steve Jobs to force users to follow its lead .