J. Allard leaving Microsoft over Courier?
By Dean • May 24th, 2010 • Category: Industry News
- Photo: Microsoft
Rumblings coming out of Redmond suggest key employee and general Microsoft cheerleader J. Allard has left the company over the cancellation of the Microsoft tablet project, Courier.
Product Champion
Xbox 360 gamers will know J. Allard well, since he was one of the most high profile 360 champions since the console’s inception. He’s since gone on to become the Entertainment and Devices ‘Chief Experience Office’ as well as that division’s Chief Technology Officer.
The long story shortened is that J. Allard is upset the Microsoft Courier project has been cancelled, so much so that he went on (or was put on) administrative leave and has yet to return. The fallout from the cancellation of the Courier project was escalated all the way to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s office, where it is believed Ballmer may have, actually, pushed Allard out of the company.
What’s next?
- Photo: Google
Well, for this Microsoft tablet, nothing is next. With the project cancelled, one hopes Microsoft will take what it learned during the R&D process and apply it to other devices, most interestingly a tablet device that’s not the HP Slate.
As for J. Allard, his experience with marketing high volume popular gadgets and his well-noted evangelism for products will put him on many companies’ radars. It’s highly likely he could find himself sitting at Apple, Google, Sony, Nintendo, HTC, or any other high profile tech companies. Some tech blogs are already taking bets on where he will end up, with John Gruber over at Daring Fireball betting he would land up at Google. He’s that good at what he does.
Courier, farewell
At least this talk of J. Allard’s disappearance is confirmation that we’re not the only ones unhappy about the cancellation of the Microsoft Courier Project. It also, inadvertently, confirms that the project had escalated to being more than just a fact-finding side project.
Tags for this article: J. Allard, Microsoft Courier, Xbox 360
