Is Apple Killing the Mouseover?

Andy Croll writes in the end of :hover?:

:hover as an web interface design tool going forward is going to be less and less important. As to whether this is a good or bad thing I’m not sure.

He makes the point that as more and more sites and web apps optimize for the iPad and iPhone, designers aren’t going to be able to rely on mouseover states. Mouseovers are used both to provide feedback that an item is clickable and to reduce complexity on a screen by hiding controls until the cursor is moved over an area. But that ability goes away with the iPad. I’m running into this issue with a current project, and it takes a new way of thinking about the problem.

Andy sums up:

I know that I’ll certainly be considering ‘tap to toggle’ as a user interface choice ahead of hover in the future. The iPhone-ification of interaction online continues.

(via Daring Fireball)