Brandon Watson, head of the Windows Phone Developer Experience, is leaving Microsoft to join Amazon. According to the ZDNet report, Watson will take over as the Director of the Kindle Cross Platform team. In this new role, he will oversee the development of Kindle apps including those for Windows Phone and Windows 8. February 6th will be Watson’s last day at the Redmond Company.
Watson is one of several key people who recently left the Windows Phone division. In these other cases, the employees joined other divisions within Microsoft. In early December, Windows Phone division President, Andy Lees, was appointed to a leadership position and now reports directly to Steve Ballmer. Terry Myerson, formerly the Corporate Vice President, took over Lee’s place. Later that month, Matt Bencke, General Manager for Developer and Marketplace, left Windows Phone to join the Xbox division.