Chief Engineer leaves Microsoft for Amazon

The renewal of the Windows team at Microsoft Phone continues. In December, the division director Andy Lees announced his departure. Now we learn that another manager, Brandon Watson leaves Microsoft. He himself announced his resignation, explaining that a substantial opportunity at Amazon had been presented.

Brandon Watson was well known at Microsoft. Responsible for developing the mobile operating system, he was chief engineer. He was also known third-party developers as it regularly published technical notes on opportunities. He had also liaised with the developers of Chevron, the first tool release of Windows Phone 7.

The information is reported on ZDnet by Mary-Jo Foley. She says having discussed via email with Brandon Watson, the latter having finally said: “It was a difficult decision, but the opportunity that I was presented was too great to be denied”. The temptation in question came from Amazon, Watson was asked to work on the Kindle. February 3, Foley added that he had received no information on a possible replacement for the engineer.

In an update this morning Foley says that Microsoft has confirmed the departure of Brandon Watson, thanking him for his work. However, the firm declined to respond on the issue of replacement, indicating that it had no information to share on this topic.