Windows Phone vet quietly jumps to Xbox in platform rethink
updated 04:15 pm EST, Mon December 19, 2011
Windows Phone dev GM moves to Xbox Live
Microsoft's Windows Phone team lost a member last month in an unpublicized executive shuffle that ma be part of a larger strategy change. Developer and Marketplace GM Matt Bencke was said by sources for ZDNet to have left for the Xbox Live team in late November. Reasons for the switch weren't picked up, but the change is fresh enough that Bencke's LinkedIn profile doesn't reflect the new position.
His move would have preceded the Andy Lees role change by about two weeks.
Suspicions have been raised that Microsoft is unifying Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 code bases such that parts of the desktop OS would exist in the normally Windows CE-based Windows Phone core. In theory, the tie-in could see apps that run on both platforms, although it would most likely see WP8 apps run on the desktop rather than the opposite.
Rumors have hinted that Microsoft might start folding the marketing team for Windows Phone into the main Windows team and could see Microsoft treat Windows Phone as a less distinct side of its work. Microsoft is already giving Windows 8 a Metro interface very similar to what it made for Windows Phone and may want to tie the two together symbolically, if not technically.
If not a strategy shift, the swap could represent frustration within the company. CEO Steve Ballmer has said he's unhappy with Windows Phone's current performance in the market. The OS has just 1.5 percent of the market and may not be a major threat to Android or iOS even with the Nokia deal.
