Zune Business Dev Executive Moves On

An anonymous reader slipped us a link to the Seattle PI article discussing Bryan Lee's departure from Microsoft. The former business development VP for the Zune has parted ways with the company for personal reasons now that 'Zune was launched and on track'. This means that J. Allard will be stepping up into fill the void. Allard was instrumental in bringing the first Xbox console to market, and was the VP in charge of technical matters for the Zune. An analyst with Gartner is quoted as saying this move means not all is well in the land of Zune, but a rumour on the CrunchGear site indicates that Microsoft is planning on stepping things up later this year with a Zune cellphone. A smartphone designed to compete with Apple in that market it would seem, despite whatever problems may be going on, the company is still rather fond of the strange little brown device.

Comments

On track all right...

[UbuntuDupe]

This might be the wrong name, but he sounds like a guy I talked about with my (occasionally gullible ...) mom about a month ago.

"Oh, [UbuntuDupe], did you hear the story about this genius they have at Microsoft and all this brilliant ideas?"

"Like what?"

"Well, he was the mastermind behind the Xbox!"

"Um ... the Xbox has been a loss for five years now. That doesn't sound like it's much of a success for MS yet."

"But ... it's going to pay off eventually."

"I'm sure. Anything else?"

"Well, um, they say he was also the head of the Zune project."

"...? The Zune is a basically a butt of everyone's jokes now and has sold very poorly."

"Well, they also said he has a new brilliant idea for an upcoming product."

"But it hasn't been released yet?"

"No..."

***

Btw, for those of your unfamiliar with American business, leaving "for personal reasons" is code for "We're dumping you, you miserable failure, but we'll sugarcoat it to salvage your dignity."

personal reasons ?

[Anonymous Coward]

like ethics, morality and a sense of dignity

Re:personal reasons ?

[Reverend528]

He just felt it was time to squirt over to another company.

If Apple made a Magic Pony, would Microsoft?

[Nova Express]

Steve Jobs, Macworld, 2008: "We've invented the iPony!" (pulls back sheet to reveal shining white magical pony prancing on stage) "His name is Starshine, and we made him from moonbeams, fairy dust, suger, spice, and a tiny bit of neatsfoot oil. He can sing, dance, do your algebra homework, and go from 0-60 in 4.9 seconds!"

Steve Ballmer, 6 months later: "We've invented the ZunePony!" (pulls back sheet to reveal hideous brown zombie pony with mismatched eyes and visible stitching across its reanimated carcase and reeking of death and sulfer) "His name is Mordheim, and we made him from corpses, discarded auto parts and some leftover copies of Microsoft Bob. He can shamble nearly 20 feet in any direction, emit unearthly screams like a damned soul, and feast on the flesh of the living!" (At this point, the zombie pony stumbles toward the camera and starts eating the brain of an AP reporter. Thankfully, this doesn't seem to have any impact on the reporter's career.)

Newstory six months later: "Microsoft says it's quite happy to capture 2% of the Magic Pony market this year. 'Just wait for ZunePony 2.0!' said Ballmer. "We've added claws and horns!"

Re:If Apple made a Magic Pony, would Microsoft?

[Rocketship Underpant]

Hm, the ZunePony ... will Microsoft abandon their BraysForSure platform with that one?