The achievement is nice, but is it worth it?
When solely looking at the technical aspects here I think MS are doing ok. Sure, nothing too complicated to setup a framework and then have it support multiple platforms, but IMO MS does some good and interesting things when it comes to GUI designs.
But is it all really worth it ? I wonder.. When looking at the specs of a regular WP7 phone I can't help feel unimpressed. Nothing bad about the smartphone aspect; I think that comes down pretty decent. You have your applications which you can use, you can share your data online and use that same data on your PC. Enough connectivity to go with it, all in all not too bad I think.
But what about simple phone features? You know; having a browser to check up on the files on the phone, being able to use an mp3 file not only to listen to but also as ringtone or how about assigning this music to a special contact? And for that matter being able to easily transfer stuff to and from the phone using bluetooth or USB... You know; stuff you'd want to do with a cellphone.
Believe it or not; all of that is not possible with a WP7 phone; though support for mp3 as ringtone is coming with the next update though. Heck; doing something as basic as turning wifi or bluetooth on and off requires you to skim through the phone settings every time; you can't place a shortcut somewhere for quick access.
And although Win8 has yet to come I have to admit that so far I'm not really impressed with that one either. The new metro GUI? Not for me; I'm pretty happy with Aero on Win7. Being able to access .iso images out of the box? I could already do that when I was still back on Windows XP.
Or what about the ribbon interface in Explorer? I don't think its going to be as bad as some others think (hey, each to his own!) but it would not be a strong argument for me to want to move to Windows 8.
The only thing I'm curious about are the possible new developments with systems administration (which is also my profession). But that is going to hit TechNet sooner or later anyway for all of us to read and catch up to. And heck; sometimes such developments will even be made available on other ("older") platforms as well. Take for example PowerShell. Released in 2006 (the XP / Vista era) yet also made available for older Windows 2003 servers.
So quite frankly I think the achievement is pretty good, but having said that I also wonder if its worth it. Right now I'm a very happy Win7 & Office 2010 user and unless MS starts to drastically change their policies like (wh)Oracle has I see no reason for change.