Windows Live for mobile veteran is officially gone from Microsoft
File this in closing-the-loop department.
Back in February of this year, word was that 24-year Microsoft veteran Brian Arbogast had decided to leave the company -- right around the time that Terry Myerson took control of Windows Phone Engineering, including both software and services. It turns out Arbogast has flown the coop, as of August, after a multi-month sabbatical.
Arbogast's latest title was the Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Mobile Services.In that role, Arbogast was in charge of “the mobile services strategy, platform, and experiences for Windows Live and Windows Mobile, as well as the strategy, platform, and integrated services for network operators and other syndication partners.”
On Microsoft's press site -- where it is noted now that as of August 16 he left Microsoft to "pursue other interests" -- it says Arbogast most recently managed the Windows Live Developer and Communications Platform team in the Online Services Division.
(AllThingsD has speculated that Arbogast may end up joining the growing number of former Softies at Yahoo, noting that another former Microsoft mobile services exec -- John Metheny, who most recently worked on the Kin team , also is now at Yahoo.)
In that role, "his charter included developing the core technology behind Windows Live mail, calendar, contacts, storage, instant messaging, VoIP functionality, Microsoft's online identity services and the delivery of a broad developer ecosystem around the Windows Live platform, along with extending Live services to mobile devices and operators," according to the Web site.
Microsoft is expected to release to the Web the final version of its "Wave 4" Windows Live Services, including the core "Windows Live Essentials 2011" suite. (Microsoft made available to its employees and certain other select testers an updated test build of Windows Live Essentials 2011 last week, I hear, though Windows Live officials declined to comment on that build or what's new in it.)
Microsoft also is expected to make updated versions of its Windows Live services available for Windows Phone 7 devices, which are due out in Europe in October and in the States in November. I'd think those services, some of which will be available via the People and Pictures hub, and others via the Windows Phone Live Companion site, will be available by the time of launch....