News
Key Xbox, Zune execs leaving Microsoft
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
News Category: Digital Media
Microsoft has announced that Robbie Bach, president of the company’s Entertainment and Devices (E&D) Division, and J Allard, senior vice president of Design and Development for E&D, are leaving the company. Bach will remain with the company through the fall to oversee the transition, while Allard will take an official advisory role at the company. Both Bach and Allard were instrumental in the creation and continued development of the Xbox and Zune brands, and through the E&D division also oversaw the company’s mobile phone efforts, including Windows Phone and the KIN project. A recent report claimed that Allard made the decision to leave the company after it decided not to move forward with its Courier dual-screen tablet concept, which Allard had championed.
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1
The guy who needs to leave Microsoft is Steve Ballmer. Ballmer is wrecking Microsoft. Consider that just a few years ago Microsoft had a virtual monopoly on the smartphone market. Now Microsoft is a dying brand in that market and WindowsMobileCEPocketPCPhoneWhateveritscalledthisweek is too little too late.
Posted by Eric on May 25, 2010 at 10:13 AM (PDT)
2
I was an usher in J Allard’s wedding (although, I always knew him as “Jim”). I’m glad to see that he’s finally left the dark side!
Posted by urbanslaughter on May 25, 2010 at 10:43 AM (PDT)
3
Ballmer should stay for as long as it takes. He’s doing a fine job driving Microsoft into a well deserved place of irrelevance.
As for the XBox and Zune boys. XBox only survived because MS threw BILLIONS of dollars at it to keep it afloat. They tried the same thing with Zune, but it too was flawed from the beginning.
The should stick with producing garbage software and gouging their captives… I mean… customers.
Posted by Mr. Reeee on May 25, 2010 at 5:49 PM (PDT)