Two steps ahead in terms of GUI design though (not talking about applying it correctly everywhere).
How they could be ahead, when in their design a piece of drawable does not indicate if it is actionable or not?
It their mission for minimalism, they threw out a few good pieces. Now they have to figure out, how to catch up and not to blow up in their face.
They have always been 2 steps behind on virtually every product release.
Windows phone - check.
Browser that supports modern javascript - check.
An OS that looks wonky on the desktop because they're attempting to play catch-up with mobile devices - check.
You can probably throw Azure cloud services up there too.
If this guy can clean house and run a better ship that what they've been doing, more power to him, but they've got more to worry about that swapping their high paid CEO if they're going to have a future outside of Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
(Did I hear "Kin Phone"?)