PLM and usability

What will drive the Future user interfaces ..
Recent article on how third-party iOS developers are creating apps that could eventually drive the next generation user interfaces was interesting.

...innovative new methods for user interaction. Designs that do away with buttons, standard user interface elements suggested by Apple and built into the iOS development SDK, mean taking risks since you’re asking customers to start in unfamiliar territory, but in the base cases, they also result in a kind of new life for your iOS device.

The article further talks about gestures adding to new experience of intuitive interfaces ..

...Gestures are where it’s at for a lot of the newest apps out there. Gestures handle everything from data entry, to deleting and adding new items, to switching views and updating information.

PLM and usability ..
Fact that usability of PLM solutions have gone down in general is bitter truth and duly acknowledged in a Boeing presentation referred in PLM conference 

...functionality and cost of ownership increased due to more complexity, it was evident that usability decreased

Even today we see PLM solutions being developed with clunky interfaces, and usability always comes as second thought to functionality. Perhaps the spreadsheet mindset dominates the users so much that they expect a system with hundred plus columns and thousands of records to be managed with ease in an enterprise solution !  I understand few PLM vendors are putting serious effort towards revamping the Usability.
Read analyst briefing summary from Siemens PLM. I liked emphasis on data in context -
...manage large volumes of data but only use data in context to make the best decision.

My Thoughts .. 
Just as consumer space, third party developers are driving the parent towards UI innovation ,can this model be replicated in mainstream PLM world.

Like can we have any opportunity for community to create user interface components that can be plugged into existing PLM platforms. Important to keep the base layer with PLM vendor so that we do not end up into compatibility issues.

This model might be there in some form, yet making the whole architecture open so that PLM vendors act more of OS layer and let community drive and compete for better user experience might resolve the increasing problem of usability ...