M$ sees iOS as a huge success I'm sure and obviously with some good reason. And we know M$ copies or aquires, not innovates. So...

Monkey Boy Ballmer saw that iOS was a Very Closed System and declared that it was Good.
He saw that it made billions for the Company That Owned It and declared it was Good.
M$ set out to make WP7 even more closed than iOS in hopes to make billions too, and Monkey Boy Ballmer declared it was Good.
Monkey Boy Ballmer then sent his disciple Elop to spread the word of WP7 far and wide, as far as Finland, and he declared it was Good.

Let's hope this doesn't mean we end up with the smartphone equivalent of priests and young boys...