Microsoft to wave goodbye to mobile 'experience' boss?
Entertainment and Devices in line for redesign
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All change at Microsoft, according to the Wall Street Journal which reports J Allard - responsible for the Xbox and parent to the stillborn Courier - is top of the leaving list.
Citing the omniscient "people familiar with the matter" the WSJ reports that Microsoft will likely announce a complete reorganising of its Entertainment and Devices Division, including the departure of J Allard, whose titles have included CTO and chief experioence officer, later this week.
The division, which includes the Xbox, Zune and Windows Mobile, made $1.67bn in sales last year - but revenue from Windows Mobile is in terminal decline (hopefully to be supplanted by revenue from Windows Phone 7), so it's the Xbox that makes money with Microsoft pinning its hopes on the hand-position-tracking Project Natal to keep that revenue flowing.
Windows Phone 7 is coming late to the party, and bringing little that's not already on the table, and despite leading the world towards slate-based computing almost a decade ago Microsoft has been surprisingly lackadaisical about putting together a platform that can compete with the iPad.
Videos seemed to show Microsoft Courier could have provided a credible alternative, but the gap between a video demonstration and a commercial product is broad, and Courier never made it across.
Which is probably one of the reasons behind J Allard's departure - he was credited with responsibility for overseeing that project, and Microsoft blogger Mary-Jo Foley reported his disappearance from the Microsoft campus last week following the cancellation of Courier, and that in turn must prompt some serious changes in the division.
Quite what new management can do we don't know, but they'll have to pull something quite remarkable out of the hat to start the long process of catching up with the competition. ®
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COMMENTS
Windows Mobile is doooooomed
Windows Mobile and its predecessors easily beat off all comers as being the worst OSs I have ever used. Completely inconsistent UI, appalling lack of stability leading to hard resets numerous times per day, general flakiness, complete lack of visual appeal etc etc.
I am no fan of Microsoft's, but I have been favourably impressed with Windows 7 despite the atrocious dog's breakfast that was Vista and I have even considered buying a Windows 7 laptop. However, my experiences with Window Mobile have been so negative that there is no way I would ever touch it or its progeny with a barge pole. Never did an OS deserve to wither on the vine as much as Windows Mobile and I am fully confident that it will.
Bye bye.
While you're here
Which lottery numbers should I pick this week and will it rain on my birthday?
Let's face facts
Microsoft has been the bane of the computer industry since its inception.
Just tell me how many times you've had to hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
Give me Unix/Linux anyday and let's finally bid farewell to Microsoft...

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