Over the weekend, PC World posted their "Ten Tech Wins of 2011", and the list included Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. Rather than pick out a handset, it goes for the whole ecosystem (but does highlight Nokia joining that ecosystem). Expect to see Windows Phone pop up in a number of year end lists.

Time will tell whether Windows Phone can catch up with Android and the iPhone, but at least Microsoft is making all the right moves. After launching incomplete software in 2010, Microsoft spent the year adding all the prerequisites of a modern mobile OS, including copy-and-paste functionality, third-party multitasking, HTML 5, support and front-facing camera support. The company also enlisted Nokia to build high-end handsets, and strong-armed Android phone makers into licensing agreements that may persuade them to construct more Windows Phones. This was the turnaround Microsoft desperately needed.

It joins Apple's Siri, the Xbox Kinect peripheral, and the digital Jeopardy! contestant Watson from IBM in the top ten. That's a rather illustrious list, and we'll see what all these tech wins do in their post graduation year of 2012.