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Windows Phone developer lead leaves for Amazon's Kindle team

By | February 3, 2012, 1:43pm PST

Summary: Brandon Watson, head of developer experiences for Windows Phone, is the latest exec to leave the Microsoft’s phone unit.

Brandon Watson, known to many Windows Phone developers as head of the WP Developer Experience, is leaving Microsoft for Amazon.

It’s not just any job at Amazon, either. Watson is going to be the Director of the Kindle Cross Platform team. There he will be working on the product development roadmap for Kindle apps across all first- and third-party platforms worldwide, including the Windows Phone app and the Windows 8 app.

Watson confirmed his departure via e-mail, telling me  “it was a hard decision, but the opportunity placed in front of me that was too big to pass up.”

So far, no replacement for Watson has been appointed. I’ve asked Microsoft for comment on the company’s plans here and have not received word back.

Update: A corporate spokesperson had nothing to share about replacement plans for Watson. He did, however, pass along this statement:

“We can confirm February 6th is Brandon Watson’s last day at Microsoft. Brandon did a great job helping us build a vibrant developer community and we wish him well with his next adventure.”

(I first heard about Watson’s departure from WPDev Podcast’s Ryan Lowdermilk on Twitter.)

Watson is one of a number of recent departures from the Windows Phone organization.

By the way, Watson isn’t the only former Softie working on the Kindle team. Former Windows Corporate Vice President of Strategy Mike Nash is there, too, among others.

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Topics

Developer, Team, Phone, Microsoft Windows Phone, Amazon.com Inc., Amazon Kindle, Watson, Microsoft Windows, Product Development, E-books & E-Readers, Operating Systems, Software, Research & Development, Business Operations, Personal Technology, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

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Not too surprising....
sameer_singh17 14th Mar
Windows Phone has seen some significant departures - http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2012/03/can-windows-phone-be-viable-platform.html
View in thread
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
RyanGadz 3rd Feb
sad to see him go, hopefully he will be replaced by someone equally as energetic. he was a great asset to the wp7 developer community.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
symbolset 4th Feb
@RyanGadz He couldn't exactly stick around when they play the platform switcheroo. At least his replacement can blame him.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
anothercanuck Updated - 3rd Feb
I wonder what he, and the others, know about WP that we don't that spurred their decisions to leave.
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That Amazon would give him a position that payed a lot more?
Johnny Vegas 3rd Feb
Hes still going to be building for WP and W8. Certainly no one can be excited by the ios/android development process.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
garyc2011 3rd Feb
@Johnny Vegas

98.6% of smartphone buyers might be excited

lets face it the 1.4% and FALLING market share of winmo was hardly inspiring...................the writing is clearly on the wall for wp.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
garyc2011 3rd Feb
@Johnny Vegas

98.6% of smartphone buyers might be excited

lets face it the 1.4% and FALLING market share of winmo was hardly inspiring...................the writing is clearly on the wall for wp.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
GoodThings2Life 3rd Feb
@garyc2011 ... your facts are a bit out of date... they increased to 1.7% this recent quarter as Blackberry continued to slide, and they are rising with the introduction of Nokia devices to their portfolio.

Remember, Windows wasn't an immediate success either, and neither was Xbox... but Microsoft, traditionally, has always come into a market as the "underdog" and hacked away at the dominant power until one day the power wakes up and says, "WTF JUST HAPPENED?! I guess nobody cares about me."
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
dcasali Updated - 4th Feb
@GoodThings2Life


Too little, too late. Think Zune.



Remember, Windows wasn't an immediate success either, and neither was Xbox... but Microsoft, traditionally, has always come into a market as the "underdog" and hacked away at the dominant power until one day the power wakes up and says, "WTF JUST HAPPENED?! I guess nobody cares about me."
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No, GoodThings2Life, Microsoft has not traditionally been underdog
HollywoodDog 4th Feb
@Johnny Vegas ... "traditionally, has always come into a market as the "underdog""

Microsoft has traditionally entertained the narcissistic fantasy that it is an underdog. Microsoft has been the colossus bestriding the technology world since the beginning of time (the early 1990s anyway).

Imagining oneself as the underdog is a way of excusing poor performance.

As long as you-know-who is running things, they'd better have a list of excuses at the ready.
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Underdog in markting, though
tappette 5th Feb
@HollywoodDog, of course MS isn't the underdog in terms of revenue, market share and brand awareness, but for some odd reason they ARE the underdog in marketing, in the sense of brand credibility. And THAT flies in the face of brand loyalty, where they still hold high numbers.

So just looking at their marketing, one flop after another, no one can deny they're the underdog. And doesn't getting product out all depend on marketing?
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An Underdog by any other name?
HollywoodDog 5th Feb
@Johnny Vegas ... allrighty, Wikipedia defines underdog thus:

Noun
underdog (plural underdogs)
1. A competitor thought unlikely to win.
2. Somebody at a disadvantage.

I think in current idiomatic English, the second meaning is probably what is most often meant when calling someone or something an underdog.

Microsoft is not at a disadvantage materially, but only because of the incompetence of the leadership. They could have created the iPod before Apple did, and the iPhone and a lot of other things. There's nothing lacking in the people who do the work there.

I just can't see the richest most powerful company at the very top (as they were for a long time) being portrayed as being at a disadvantage. They have had every advantage. They've just blown their opportunities.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
FuzzyBunnySlippers 3rd Feb
@anothercanuck

Maybe he knew they'd lose in overtime over a shootout. Sorry, Wings fan here. Couldn't resist, Mr. Canuck.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Palmtree5 4th Feb
@anothercanuck If Amazon offered him to be a key player in a new Amazon phone, that might do it.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Peter Perry 4th Feb
@anothercanuck Because it is failing and it is extremely obvious! iOS has the people who want a simple smartphone and Android has those that Want more Flexibility and that doesn't leave much room for an OS that isn't visually appealing enough to even attract first time users.
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It attracted me!
tappette 5th Feb
@Peter Perry, Android didn't cut it for me; after one year of looking at unsightly arrangements of widgets and icons, none of which seemed to go together, and, in all honesty, absolutely FAKE flexibility (GREAT marketing, though!) I was couldn't wait to try WP7. And au contraire, even my Mac addict wife comments on the beauty of the OS, and how well things are integrated, like the Music tile and Friends tile.
The only thing that iOS does better, and Android is as bad as WP7 with, is the calender.

In a scene that could've been out of a commercial, the other day I was in the Paris metro, looking at something on my Lumia 800, and a stranger sitting next me started asking me about the phone and the OS, and I let him use it for a minute and we both got very enthusiastic.
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Money.
Mister Spock 4th Feb
@anothercanuck
it was a hard decision, but the opportunity placed in front of me that was too big to pass up.

It sounds as though he had a choice, that WP7 was continuing on, but sometimes an offer arrises that one can not pass up, career wise, as the challenges and rewards offer better advancement.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
admiraljkb 15th Feb
@Mister Spock

WP7 was/is a dead end since it was CE based. The Win8 team took over as they unify the codebase with modern OS underpinnings going under the new Win8 phones. Its a good thing, but it does leave some redundant programmers. (along with a lot of single core phones that can't *effectively* be upgraded) The reason I'm pretty sure this is the case is too many defections from the Mobile group. Rather than wait on their ship to sink, they jumped and found new ships.
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Brandon just simply took a step up. Good for him!
SmoothDouglas Updated - 4th Feb
@anothercanuck

I don't think it had anything to do with him being upset or disappointed. He truly did a great job of getting developers excited to develop for WP. He did such a darn good job that he got an offer from Amazon to move up and take a bigger role. I can't blame him and anyone saying he should of stayed is crazy because it's a move up. I'm happy for Brandon. He deserved it.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
PolymorphicNinja 9th Feb
@dcasali
Meh.. maybe. But the difference here is that Microsoft actually cares about the phone market. Zune was quickly forgotten once iPods became less popular than iPhones.
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Since WP is a failure and he was the lead for the failure ....
wackoae 3rd Feb
... I don't see it as a good acquisition by Amazon.
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Now, where have I heard that before?
itpro_z 3rd Feb
Oh, yeah, now I remember. Didn't they say that about the xbox for years? Now it dominates the market.
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What market???
wackoae 3rd Feb
@itpro_z The gaming market is being dead for years. Nothing but rehash with a new coat of paint.

XBox is still a money losing division for MS. So claiming that it "dominates" is kind of ridiculous (not to mention that Sony hasn't release anything good in years, and the Nitendo just keep making the same old games over and over again).
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To be polite, wakoae...
itpro_z 3rd Feb
...you are full of it. Take a look at Ed Bott's breakdown of Microsoft revenues and you will see that Microsoft's gaming division is producing a respectable chunk of their money. Yes, the xbox lost money for the first few years, but now it is a major cash cow for them. In 2011, the video game industry raked in about $65 billion, not a ridiculous sum by any standards. Just to put that in perspective, gaming revenues are about equal to worldwide music sales and much greater than movie sales.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
smulji 3rd Feb
@itpro_z

I wouldn't say the Xbox is dominating the market but it is definitely in the NO.1 spot. Nintendo & Sony are still very respectable contenders.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Peter Perry 4th Feb
@itpro_z Wackoae has no idea and he certainly doesn't have anything to back it up.
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The gaming market has been dead for years?
Mister Spock 4th Feb
@itpro_z
XBox is still a money losing division for MS.

I understand. PlayStation was allowed to be a money losing division for it's first few years before making a profit, as it was not Microsoft.

I see your hatred of Microsoft blocks you from the reality of the world around you.
plain
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You believe Ed Bott?
Joe.Smetona Updated - 9th Feb
@itpro_z ... Granted, MS gaming is doing well, but I wouldn't believe Ed Bott, he has proven himself to be tied to Microsoft, and it's puppet ZDNet, where competing posts are automatically deleted by their filters. You're definitely not getting the full picture here, but the authors and shills have the floor all the time. sad
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Rama.NET 3rd Feb
@wackoae
>>XBox is still a money losing division for MS.
Last time when I checked $1.32 Billion profit is considered gains not loss. probably you are from a different planet where you consider profits as loss. Good for you.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36011/Microsofts_Xbox_360_Division_Sees_132_Billion_Profit_For_Fiscal_Year_2011.php
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The loons wont give up on this old chestnut
otaddy 4th Feb
@Rama.NET Thanks for once again giving them the facts to choke on.

And let's not forget that Kinect was the fastest selling tech gadget of all time.

So clearly, the console game market is NOT dead. (PC gaming, yes)
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Games are basically a one time sale.
Joe.Smetona Updated - 9th Feb
@Rama.NET ... I don't know of people upgrading xboxes. It's a tremendous investment in gaming software to have to discard like the Nintendo DS changes obsoleting old games. They basically all work the same way and get boring.
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Kindle phone, perhaps?
itpro_z 3rd Feb
For two years before the Kindle Fire came out we kept reading about Amazon hiring Android developers left and right. Perhaps this is the signal that Amazon is eyeing another market as well.
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Kindle phone, perhaps?
itpro_z 3rd Feb
For two years before the Kindle Fire came out we kept reading about Amazon hiring Android developers left and right. Perhaps this is the signal that Amazon is eyeing another market as well.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
TheFilipinoFlash 3rd Feb
One Word: Elop. wink
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Sultansulan 3rd Feb
Wp7 the losers team
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Sultansulan 3rd Feb
Wp7 the losers team
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You would know something of losers, Sultansulan
Mister Spock 4th Feb
@Sultansulan
you have to live your life everyday.
plain
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teh truth
garyc2011 3rd Feb
Nokia is a burning platform !!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't worry Elop, the flames will go out soon as the flaming twisted wreckage that is the Nokia platform plummets under the waves on its journey to the bottom........................ taking the Windows Phone with it as it plunges death-wards into the abyss

1.4% Market Share.....not long to go now

Actually Elop, it wasn't a burning platform until you publicly executed meego (which coincidently has sold more than WP7 despite the fact it was shipped to 2nd tier markets, and Nokia try to hide this fact) as well as Symbian.....which was an even sillier thing to do, but I guess If monkey boy told you to do it......you gotta follow orders.

Lets all Flop with Elop
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
FuzzyBunnySlippers 3rd Feb
@garyc2011

You should seriously consider writing fiction novels. Excellent use of alliteration, extensive knowledge of compelling adjectives... honestly. Alas, foretelling the future may not be your strong point. Also, I'd guess even you considered stooping to name calling as somewhat beneath those skills. Or, at least, you must know that "monkey boy" is unoriginal. Yet you went with that anyway. I'd say, leave that out next time. Your tale was told, and told well up until then.
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They ridicule what they fear
Mister Spock 4th Feb
@FuzzyBunnySlippers
the fact that WP7 garners better reviews in terms of upgrades, speed, and stability, they feal that they have chosen the wrong platform, and must ridicule those around them in an effort to "save face"

I know of very few that are "very happy" with their Android phones, I suspect garyc2011 feels he has chosen incorrectly, and is one of them
plain
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Forrestall 4th Feb
@garyc2011, actually, Gary, the recently published numbers by Nokia seem to indicate the Windows Phone Lumia 800 sold more than the Meego N9, despite just 6 weeks of sales in just 6 countries.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Palmtree5 Updated - 3rd Feb
Sounds to me like Amazon is coming out with a phone. And they have the market to deliver the apps, music, movies, shopping from your phone, etc.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Sultansulan 4th Feb
Elop show us and the shareholders the numbers on the sale of Lumia 710 in the U.S.

I do believe that it has flopped

Please happy
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Sultansulan 4th Feb
Elop show us and the shareholders the numbers on the sale of Lumia 710 in the U.S.

I do believe that it has flopped

Please happy
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Gotta eat
Robert Hahn 4th Feb
This always happens when there's a rumored layoff. The people who smell it coming start shopping their resumes, and some of them will get offers. Sometimes those aren't the people you wanted to see leave, but that's the way it goes. This guy may have a family to feed, and he needs a job instead of a pink slip.
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
admiraljkb 15th Feb
@Robert Hahn

Since the Windows team has taken over with the consolidation of the Windows desktop/server OS on the mobiles as well, the Mobile team is likely about to get "re-allocated", and several laid off. (just saw one of those up close last August). The only bit by leaving early, is missing the severance package, but if Amazon pulled out the chair for him right now, its time to jump.
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Does garyc have nothing better to do
Michael Alan Goff 4th Feb
than come to every WP7 article and post the same crap again and again?
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
anrisilva@... 4th Feb
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/11/17/jeff-bezos-eyeing-apples-lunch-amazon-smartphone-in-2012-citi-says/
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Amazon Windows Phone 8..........!
jinishans 4th Feb
what else....?
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It must be sth BIG
deep@... 5th Feb
you don't need a person of that caliber to build few WP7 apps.

My take is that Amazon coming out with a WP7 phone/tablet, integrated with all their online stuff!!
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RE: Windows Phone developer leaves for Amazon's Kindle team
Sultansulan 5th Feb
Wp7 the sinking ship
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Not too surprising....
sameer_singh17 14th Mar
Windows Phone has seen some significant departures - http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2012/03/can-windows-phone-be-viable-platform.html

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