employee

Windows Phone Executive Robert Williams leaves Microsoft for Amazon

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Wednesday, Jul 11, 2012 at 5:39 pm

Reports are in that Robert Williams, Windows Phone Executive, has left the software giant and has made the move to Amazon. It seems as though there's an ugly trend starting to appear, but we do hope this is the end of it.

Sounds familiar, right? It was only five months ago when Brandon Watson, Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone, left Microsoft to work on the Amazon Kindle. Of course, we're not forgetting Charlie Kindel, General Manager of the Windows Phone Developer Ecosystem, who left the company late last year.

It seems everyone is migrating elsewhere and we're beginning to wonder if we'll have a Windows Phone team left. So what's Williams' new role at Amazon? He's only the new Director of the App Store. Sounds rather snazzy, eh? Williams was the Senior Director Business Development in the Windows Phone division, and we expect his hard work and experience will be sorely missed at Redmond.

At least he's still presumably using his Windows Phone if the above tweet is anything to go by. We - of course - wish Williams all the best in the future and look forward to welcoming whoever takes his place at Microsoft.

Source: Win Gadget News; thanks, Chris, for the heads up!

Windows Phone Manager, Joe Marini, no longer at Microsoft

Windows Phone News

By Rich Edmonds, Tuesday, Sep 20, 2011 at 10:26 pm

Joe Marini, Windows Phone principle manager at Microsoft, was in the social media spotlight with three tweets that caught the eye of not only his followers, but news sites and readers all around. Geekwire reports that a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed the news this morning that Marini had left the company he'd joined in 2003, but failed to elaborate on the reasons why.

The first tweet of three in question Joe published was detailing that he was was using a Nokia Windows Phone handset. A fellow Twitter user asked him what he'd rate the device out of 10 and Joe answered with the second tweet, scoring the mysterious handset an 8 and praising the solid feel, good camera, responsive UI, and nice little touches on the body construction. The last tweet posted by Joe was stating what he'd like to see improved, namely the screen size.

Microsoft calls on its employees, according to its social media and blogging policy (PDF), to "be smart" and not to share any details that would otherwise be disclosed as confidential. Hopefully more information will be made available soon as to what the actual reasons for his departure were.

Source: Geekwire, via: TNW

Microsoft Employee "free-phone program" starts November 18th

By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Nov 3, 2010 at 6:11 am

The other day we had an interesting rumor about the HTC 7 Pro: Sprint was starting pre-orders on December 8th for the new device. As it turns out, we learned that this was for Microsoft peeps only (lucky them). That ties into the "free phones for all Microsoft employees" boast that we heard awhile back and verified recently by Ballmer himself.

Here are some more details of that program just given to Microsoft employees:

Do NOT purchase your Windows Phone 7 device prior to November 18, 2010 or after June 15, 2011 . You will not receive reimbursement for your phone purchase if you have purchased your phone outside of the start or end date of the program. (A preorder may be placed through an authorized channel prior to November 18, but not an actual purchase).

Seems like a fair system: employee picks phone and carrier, pre-orders/purchases through authorized channel, Microsoft reimburses you for the device. No other details were given but it sounds good to us!

Source: Anonymous tip (thanks!)