There’s a saying that goes something like “loose lips sink ships”. It was born during World War II when paranoia about the enemy was running high and it basically told soldiers to keep their traps shut whenever they’re talking in public. Joe Marini, who was the principal program manager for the Windows Phone web team, just couldn’t keep quite about Nokia’s upcoming Windows Phones, and because of that he was fired. He tweeted things like “I just got a chance to try out one of the slickest looking #Nokia phones I have ever seen. Soon, you will too! #wp7”, which of course made someone ask him about the device and to give it a rating between 1 and 10. Knowing this guy was a Microsoft employee, you can’t trust anything he says since his job was to evangelize Windows Phone, but anyway, his exact words were: “Overall I would say an 8. Solid feel, good camera, responsive UI, and nice little touches on the body construction”. Just an 8, someone asked him with an @ reply, to which he responded: “Yea, the camera was good, but I didn’t have optimal lighting. I’d like a larger screen too.”
For someone who has been with Microsoft since 2003, he shouldn’t have been this dumb. The folks over at TechCrunch think “Microsoft and Windows Phone need more people like Joe”, which we don’t agree with at all. Companies who talk about products before they’re actually available do an incredible disservice to their customers. There’s a reason why the Droid Bionic, which launched 9 months after it was announced at CES, didn’t get any attention. The hype was there, then there was a wait, and a longer wait, and an even longer wait, and then when it finally arrived no one really cared.
While we do think firing Joe is a bit over the top, he really should have known better.
[Via: The Nokia Blog]