Over on Jon Gruber’s influential Daring Fireball, there’s an observant quote about the iPhone’s persistent black UI from Paul Goracke and Gruber’s response:

The black iPhone UI look doesn’t look bad, per se, it’s just different than the standard theme.

I’d chime in and say the difference isn’t merely a question of aesthetics. At some point, the prevalance and superfluity of the black UI in any and every application strips each application the opportunity (or responsibility) to brand itself and go through the difficult task of distinguishing its particular user experience. In other words, the varied applications remain undifferentiated because the black iPhone UI is being used by everyone.

Black’s cool. But not at the cost of a decrease in independent creativity, or an increasingly prevalent (and disturbing) uniformity.