More subtle "the app approach is dead" from Microsoft's Windows Phone head, Andy Lees, in an interview with the Seattle Times. That key UI difference, allowing users to move effortlessly between different areas on the device (such as email, to the People Hub, to history, to a text, to their Facebook account, to a picture gallery) is a big selling point for Microsoft. Not only does it show an evolution away from Android and iOS paradigms, it also casts Microsoft as new and more personal mobile OS.
Will it work? It's not for the want of trying. The Metro interface is going to be added to the Xbox system before the end of the year, and the focus on people is certainly a smart thing to do in a mobile device. From the interview:
Most smartphone platforms corral applications into silos, Lees says, where a user needs to go in and out of the apps repeatedly to complete a task such as finding nearby restaurants, reading reviews of them, and then making a reservation. That's all handled in a "flowing, almost singular experience" on Windows Phone, Lees says.
