Microsoft employee Tim Sneath has announced that he is leaving the Redmond company to work for Google on the new Flutter mobile framework. He spent no less than 17 years with Microsoft as Program Manager and worked on projects for developers.
Sneath explains that Microsoft is an amazing company with incredibly diverse interests and is filled with talented people, where he worked on developer tools (Visual Studio) for Windows. While he believes Microsoft is an amazing company, he also discussed the mistakes that the company had committed in the Windows Vista era.
“Microsoft failed to adjust rapidly to the new competitive threats posed by the rise of the standards-based web and the resurgence of Apple and the iPhone. Its rapid growth left it with the defender’s dilemma of being attacked by all sides, while also being unwilling to sacrifice existing businesses for new opportunities,” Sneath writes.
He also explains that Windows Phone and Internet Explorer failed due to various drawbacks, “infighting between different divisions left client developers in the Microsoft ecosystem caught in the crossfire, with little clarity for those who wanted to bet on something that would endure,” he explains. Not only developers, but this also led to customers leaving the Windows Phone for Android and iOS.
“And so when ‘Metro’ (UWP) was introduced as a reset for the Windows API, leaving behind the massive existing Windows XP and Windows 7 user base in pursuit of an unproven new touch-centric UI, developers largely shrugged and continued down the paths they had already chosen,” Sneath added.
The former Microsoft employee has revealed that he’ll be part of the Flutter team to work on the new mobile SDK, the job of the SDK is to help developers create apps for Android and iOS easily with more advanced features.
