The general manager of the Windows Phone project at Microsoft is leaving the company to start a new business. Charlie Kindel had been at Microsoft for 21 years and has headed up the transition from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone. Kindel’s departure is not a warning sign that not all is well with Redmond’s mobile division. However, in his departure email posted on his personal blog, Kindel said, “To the Windows Phone team: I may stop using some Microsoft products now that I’m out of here. But not Windows Phone. The BEST product Microsoft has ever built. Do not let up!”
Kindel leaves Microsoft a few months before it releases the newest version of Windows Phone, “Mango,” and before the first iteration of a Nokia Windows Phone comes out, which is expected later this year.
Kindel’s send-off email is filled with inside jokes and is sincere and heartfelt. In an era when people jump jobs every six months and the news is filled with scathing attacks of ex-employees at their former employers, Kindel’s letter to his colleagues is refreshing. He still clearly loves Microsoft and will be starting his new company in the Seattle region.
“To my kids: No, just because I don’t work at Microsoft anymore, you may not use Google. Remember, every time you use Google, a puppy dies,” Kindel wrote.
In an interview with GeekWire, Kindel elaborates on the state of Windows Phone 7 and his decision to leave.
“Like taking vacation or having a baby, there’s never a good time,” Kindel wrote in an email exchange to GeekWire reporter Todd Bishop. “We have close to 27,000 apps in the marketplace, the best toolset, and amazingly high customer satisfaction. We would not have gotten to the table with Nokia if they didn’t believe we were in the race to win long term. We’re now in the middle phase of the marathon. This is where Microsoft’s stamina genes will come into play.”
Kindel said his new company will be a mix of “sports, advertising, mobile, social-networking, and, of course, the cloud.” He told GeekWire that it is angel funded but cannot yet say who the early investors are.
