In a rather surprising move, a senior director from Microsoft has jumped ship to Amazon amidst rumors and speculation that the latter is going to join the smartphone bandwagon that is currently dominated by Google and Apple with the release of its own device at the end of the year. Mr. Robert Williams who was working with Microsoft for 15 years and was the director of the Windows Phone business development unit has resigned just a few days ago and will take up the position as Director App Store in Amazon. This information was sourced from his LinkedIn profile that was updated recently. It is likely that he was handed the App Store unit to run considering his experience with applications at Microsoft. Based on a recent tweet from him, it has been confirmed that he has started working for Amazon.
While at Microsoft, Mr. Williams played an important role in building the wide range of applications that the Windows Phone has now. Though he has moved to a different company, it is unlikely that his role will change and he will have to be running the application development field at Amazon.
Mr. Williams is the third high placed executive from the Windows Phone division to leave the company over the last one year. Among the other two, Mr. Brandon Watson also left Microsoft to join Amazon, but to work on the Kindle platform. Recently, it was reported, from reliable sources that Amazon was in the testing phase of its smartphone and was likely to start production a little later this year with the release scheduled by Christmas time. If in fact, Amazon has successfully tested its phone, then there is nothing stopping it from taking on the smartphone market and based on recent experience, chances are that the price will take everyone by surprise.
There is a possibility that Microsoft is going to license out the Windows Phone OS to Amazon in an attempt to gain a stronghold in the market that is dominated by the iOS and Android. However, is looks like Amazon is going to build its own version of the Android OS, like it did for the Kindle Fire tablet and Microsoft will be unable to hold its ground. However, nothing can be confirmed as of now without any official word from either company.
