Originally Posted by Stuart_h:
“Ignoring all the claptrap about flair (etc) I'd say widgets can be incredibly useful. They give you the chance to see much of your 'favourite' info on a single page. Switch on my machine and i could see my local weather, and that of my holiday destination, the top news headlines, latest Blackpool FC news (Up the mighty Pool !), what my latest twitter updates are, and facebook ... etc etc.
To get ALL that info otherwise might mean opening up lots of separate apps and plenty of clicks and scrolling.
Widgets are a great option to have. Not everyone uses them but plenty do.”
Sure - I'm not disputing that they can be useful, and that some people obviously do a lot with them.
Mind you - with that list above, especially with etc etc at the end - that must be a pretty cluttered home screen!
Apple added widgets to OSX almost 10 years ago, so its not like Android has introduced something that Apple hadn't already thought of. When they did I remember thinking they might be kinda useful, and then never really using them.
So although some people might love to customise stuff as much as they can, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of average Joe users didn't get much beyond adding a news ticker and weather app.
I'm just not convinced they're as big a deal to everyone as some people might think.