Brandon Watson, Director of developer experience for Windows Phone, leaving Microsoft

We're getting word in that Brandon Watson, no stranger around here at WPCentral, will be leaving Redmond for greener pastures.  In a recent Tweet he made (and a confirmation we received), he notes:

"The rumors are true. The team is in great hands. I'll miss working on #wpdev. I will the community, but won't be a stranger."

In a way, this should not be a surprise as his old Twitter profile even proclaimed "Entrepreneur on loan to Microsoft focused on getting our developer mojo back." That statement already read to us that this was a temporary job for him with a finite mission, one that looks to have finally succeeded.

No doubt, he'll leave quite a hole to fill as Watson had quite the presence in getting Windows Phone back on the map, working tirelessly to get the recognition it deserved and making devs happy.

Update: Watson is leaving for Amazon. In an email to ZDnet he mentions he'll be taking on the responsibility as Director of the Kindle Cross Platform team and “it was a hard decision, but the opportunity placed in front of me that was too big to pass up.”

Developing...

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.