Metro UI is certainly one of the most interesting and progressive UI developments to come out of MS. I like a lot of the thinking in it. The fact that this expl

Metro UI is certainly one of the most interesting and progressive UI developments to come out of MS. I like a lot of the thinking in it. The fact that this explorer UI can exist in the same company is a tell. It demonstrates that MS's silo structure, while theoretically creating creative competition, simply results in missed opportunities. This is the real lesson from Apple. It's not just that there has been a top down design martinet running the show (that's obviously key); it's that there is a real ethos of design and perfectionism (at least in terms of UI/UX) that not only functions as a guide internally, but which is so strong and clear and implicit in the apple ecosystem that the developers of apple apps have internalized it successfully. It's not just the apple HID guidelines; it's much, much deeper than that. I absolutely loathe the centralization and control Apple imposes on content. I am in fact a rabid Linux user. But this lesson from Apple can't be ignored. Metro is one silo in Microsoft learning the UI/Design lesson. What they need is a design ethos, and that is much more difficult. It requires leadership, time and most of all consistency. The latter factor is almost the antonym of Microsoft.