Well, to be fair, It's not clear that Microsoft would have come up with the Zune interface on their own without a number of companies such as Apple, showing how successful such a platform can be.
It's easy to say "Create a simple, consumer oriented, touchscreen device" - it's entirely a different thing to implement. I've been using, and hating, the Windows Touch Screen Kiosks for over 10 years, frequently at Movie Theaters. Someone has taken a Desktop OS, and just ported it to a touch screen, rather than starting over from scratch, and saying "What should a touch screen OS look like" (Hint, it doesn't have a mouse pointer)
Also, note that Microsoft _did_ try and start over with a "simple, icon oriented, technology free" user environment - Microsoft Bob was that technology attempt. It was just a failure.
Perhaps the lesson to be learned about Bob, was that it's important to fail more quickly, so you can tack and take on a new approach. The goal was admirable (eliminate the technology interfering with the user doing their job) - Just didn't have the right team/processing/hardware at the time.
This may be contentious to a less informed audience, but in Many ways, the goals embodied in Microsoft Bob are represented in the iPad.
It's easy to say "Create a simple, consumer oriented, touchscreen device" - it's entirely a different thing to implement. I've been using, and hating, the Windows Touch Screen Kiosks for over 10 years, frequently at Movie Theaters. Someone has taken a Desktop OS, and just ported it to a touch screen, rather than starting over from scratch, and saying "What should a touch screen OS look like" (Hint, it doesn't have a mouse pointer)
Also, note that Microsoft _did_ try and start over with a "simple, icon oriented, technology free" user environment - Microsoft Bob was that technology attempt. It was just a failure.
Perhaps the lesson to be learned about Bob, was that it's important to fail more quickly, so you can tack and take on a new approach. The goal was admirable (eliminate the technology interfering with the user doing their job) - Just didn't have the right team/processing/hardware at the time.
This may be contentious to a less informed audience, but in Many ways, the goals embodied in Microsoft Bob are represented in the iPad.