You got me. Microsoft totally copied this. Nevermind their history, stretching back 20+ years, of providing support for integrating one application with another. DDE? OLE? COM automation? Yeah, none of those things could possibly be considered precursors to something like contracts.

But no. Microsoft totally ripped off Android here. eye-roll

Android deserves credit for actually delivering. Microsoft has been banging away for 20 years and still hadn't arrived at the optimal solution.

And that's fine (thought it does look like Win8 delivers better than Android) - but my argument is that Microsoft isn't ripping Android off.