Brandon Watson

Brandon Watson, who oversaw Windows Phone’s work with third-party app developers, is leaving Microsoft to join Amazon.com’s Kindle team.

Watson confirmed the news on Twitter and said in a message that he’ll be working on the Kindle cross-platform team. As Mary Jo Foley notes at ZDNet, that group makes Kindle apps for a variety of platforms, including Windows Phone.

“I am really excited, but sad to go,” Watson says in a message, noting that leaving behind a strong team in good hands makes it easier. The Windows Phone Marketplace recently surpassed 60,000 apps.

No word from Microsoft yet on a replacement. Ryan Lowdermilk of the WPDev Podcast was first to note the news.

Charlie Kindel, a Microsoft general manager who previously led third-party app initiatives, left the company last year.

Previously: Windows and Windows Phone: Their worlds are colliding

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