I agree, but the similarities are being pointed out precisely because Apple (and their major pundits like Marco and Gruber) makes a big deal about how others have borrowed ideas from them.
For example, the infamous "Redmond/Mountain View, start your photocopiers" lines, and Marco/Gruber's frequent quips like "Hmm, I've seen something like this before..." in regards to something Google or Samsung has done.
Apple's smugness is what's getting them, not their borrowing of ideas, itself.
They need to be called out on this. "Everything is a remix" was brilliant in exposing Apple hypocrisy in this regard.
The thing is, Apple fan(atic)s (the pundits and those who echo them, really) love the "Apple innovates, never copies, only bad companies without any talent copy" routine, and here we have an example where Apple has pretty blatantly ripped design elements from their competitors. For the people riding the "everything Apple produces is unique and amazing" train, iOS7 is a deep betrayal specifically because it is so familiar to things that others did first.
That is the primary reason I think Apple is getting so much crap. Apple claims to be the industry leading innovators; Tim Cook even said during the D11 conference "I don't like copying. It's a values thing." in reference to Samsung patent litigation. Apple partly built it's reputation on bashing the Microsoft (Switch campaign) and Android (WWDC's and MacWorlds). Now that Apple is playing catch-up in the mobile space that they essentially pioneered, they are getting the same snide back-handed remaks that they were dishing out.
Following current design trends and adding a splash of your own flavor to them... that's status quo, isn't it?
"Some of their own medicine" as it were.
While iOS 7 may look more like WP and Android, anyone who uses it can tell it still feels and works like iOS. Apple harp on about how design is more than how it looks, and it especially applies in this case as it doesn't work anything like Android or WP. But use a Samsung Galaxy S, and you can immediately tell that their apps menu is a wholesale ripoff of the iPhone's Springboard with next to no effort put into differentiating or improving the original design.
It's getting to be somewhat annoying how many people are whining about Windows Phone and Android similarities. Design and engineering decisions are not made in a vacuum. Android copies from iOS and vice versa - they each follow the cultural trends of smart design.
I would much rather see blog posts like this - where the author considers the iOS in its own right instead of insisting on nitpicking what's original. Now I can actually see the innovation that went into designing the iOS 7 interface. And as someone typing this comment on iOS 7 beta, I've come to a deeper appreciation of what's already in my hands.
It's not helpful to accuse large design houses and engineering teams of copying each other. That's like saying supercars aren't original because they universally use sleek, aerodynamic ("sexy") design features. No, that's just what sells and what makes sense. It's a natural maturation and trend towards intelligent design. It's just iteration.
It's true that touch interfaces no longer need to be "taught" really. We intuitively know that gestures will do things in the same way (and more efficiently) than buttons. It's all about reducing cluttered design and adding more functionality without reducing usable space. I'm glad we're moving towards this.