Jon Udell writes about Avalon and XAML:

Microsoft is pitching a Windows-only UI renderer that targets 2006-era desktops and notebooks, while allowing MSIE to stagnate.

Adam Bosworth points out the analogy to InfoPath — paraphrased in my own words: A great idea, but not carried out in the right way. I would never argue that Microsoft should do things differently for the greater good of the world — no company worth investing in would do anything that won't further their own goals. In these cases, though, I believe that they are actually ignoring a huge profit that could be made: Providing a development platform for modern, Web services-aware UIs that would be usable in an ubiquitous client, regardless of the platform.