I think you're giving Apple way too much credit on the HIG issue. Yes, we expect Apple to push the fore by building new interface components, but we should also expect them to push those components out into the standard frameworks in a timely manner as soon as it is clear they are generally applicable.
I think the poster child for Apple's inadequacy in this department is the source list. In this post from last year, Sven Porst outlines the inconsistencies in the source lists in a variety of apps. Now, I'm not a Cocoa developer, but I believe there is still no standard source list widget that developers can use to implement this functionality.
As far as I can tell, this blindness is limited to the user interface widgets. There are many, many examples of private frameworks that Apple has opened up to developers over the course of Mac OS X's development: Disc Burning, Cocoa Bindings, Core Data, Core Image, Core Video, Core Animation, Sync Services, and probably a number of others I'm forgetting.
For all of these, you can find examples of Apple apps that had the functionality before they became a public framework. For example, the functionality in Core Video was presumably developed for Final Cut Pro and Shake. Sync Services similarly had a prior life as a private API. I just don't see many examples of this at the UI level, besides brushed metal windows, but perhaps other commenters can enlighten me.
by Nick — Jan 01
I think the poster child for Apple's inadequacy in this department is the source list. In this post from last year, Sven Porst outlines the inconsistencies in the source lists in a variety of apps. Now, I'm not a Cocoa developer, but I believe there is still no standard source list widget that developers can use to implement this functionality.
As far as I can tell, this blindness is limited to the user interface widgets. There are many, many examples of private frameworks that Apple has opened up to developers over the course of Mac OS X's development: Disc Burning, Cocoa Bindings, Core Data, Core Image, Core Video, Core Animation, Sync Services, and probably a number of others I'm forgetting.
For all of these, you can find examples of Apple apps that had the functionality before they became a public framework. For example, the functionality in Core Video was presumably developed for Final Cut Pro and Shake. Sync Services similarly had a prior life as a private API. I just don't see many examples of this at the UI level, besides brushed metal windows, but perhaps other commenters can enlighten me.