It looks like my suspicions/hopes were correct that Apple did have plans to create some sort of iOS-like app uninstall process in OS X 10.7.
Last month one of the things I discussed in great length was the much needed app uninstall process that would make things much easier for normal users. It’s not that the current process of going into your applications directory and dragging an app to the trash is difficult, it’s just that the process could be simpler and cleaner. Most Mac geeks reading this will know how much cruft is left behind with some apps when you simply drag the .app file to the trash. You have plist and cache files, as well as files stuffed into the “Application Support” folder as well.
Invoking the new iOS-like Launchpad in Mac OS X Lion for managing applications allows users to click and hold on an icon to bring up the jiggling icon mode familiar to iOS users as the mechanism for organizing and deleting applications. Mac OS X Lion now allows users to delete Mac App Store application in the same way as in iOS, by clicking on an “X” button at the top left of the application’s icon.
From what I can tell based on the screenshot released by Mac Rumors, Apple is aiming for a very iOS style of behaviour here. Why wouldn’t you want to do this as well? It stands to reason that Apple ideally wants some sort of user experience uniformity between OS X and iOS.
When your typical user (let’s say your grandma) is used to single tapping and holding an icon to delete an app from her iPhone, it makes sense that she may find it comfortable to have a similar experience on her Mac.
10.7 should be the start of bringing some of the UI/UX interaction stuff that Apple has figured out with iOS, back to OS X.