I, along with millions of others, recently upgraded to iOS7, hoping for an improved experience. I wasn’t disappointed; Apple has certainly given lots of thought to making me more productive and make my device more effective.

It was only while playing with the new features though that I actually gave thought to what was on my homepage, and more importantly, what apps were on my "favorite four" at the bottom – something I hadn’t really touched since I got my phone. It quickly led me to replace two of them:

Out – iTunes

In – Spotify

I haven’t used iTunes in months. Months and months and months. Neither on my Mac nor on my iPhone. Spotify overtook it a long time ago as a simple, single source for quick and easy access to any music I want. Download, import and sort seems so clunky when I think about it now.

Out – Email

In – Social Collaboration

I’ve yet to meet someone that has actually told me they love email, like really love it. For years now, it’s been the bane of our working lives, yet we’ve been slaves to it, groaning under the strain of an ever-growing inbox.

Having used a social collaboration platform as my primary method of communicating and sharing documents for the past 6 months, I rarely get emails now, usually about five or six a day. Just as iTunes does, email now feels clunky, limited and disorganized, whereas social collaboration just works. It’s simple, inclusive and, above all, effective. It deserves its place on my "favorite four."

I look forward to more updates from Apple, and I look forward to more customers liberating themselves from their inboxes.