I have tremendous respect for John Gruber — which is a bit like a weekend hobbyist photographer saying they have tremendous respect for Henri Cartier-Bresson; who cares? — but “I think AppleInsider was right”:http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/08/ai-expose. Many consider the app switching panel in OS X to be a component of Exposé. This means that the new app switching mechanism in OS X works very much like “Exposé”, depending upon your definition. It’s also worth noting that AppleInsider used some pretty specific language describing the way it would work:

bq. “Those familiar with the design of iPhone 4.0 said that the user interface will resemble Apple’s desktop Expose feature, in that a key combination — *reportedly hitting the Home button twice — will trigger an expose-like interface that brings up a series of icons representing the currently running apps*, allowing users to quickly select the one they want to switch to directly. When a selection is made, the iPhone OS zooms out of the Expose task manager and transitions to that app.” (Emphasis mine)

The important part there is the bit about the “icons”. John’s implied definition of Exposé would require a description where the applications are tiled on the screen.

Maybe it’s not fair to say John is wrong, but that he has a more strict view of what Exposé encompasses. The current Exposé page on Apple’s website doesn’t show the app switcher any more, but I’m pretty sure it used to back when Leopard was introduced. The app switcher interacts with Exposé in an important way, which is why some people include it.

*OS X App Switcher*

p{text-align: center;}. !http://images.apple.com/findouthow/mac/images/app_switcher_gallery_1.jpg(OS X app switcher)!