Amazon is clearly interested in Windows, or at least in executives who have worked with the mobile version of the operating system. The online retail giant has hired another Windows phone expert, this time from Nokia. Nokia’s Marco Argenti has been handling relationships with software developers for the company’s Windows phones. This week Argenti said on Twitter that he’s had a great five years with Nokia and now looks forward to his new post at Amazon.
Amazon has long been rumored to be at work on a smartphone of its own, and most have expected an Android offering. The company’s popular Kindle tablets are based on a customized version of the world’s leading mobile operating system. When Amazon hired Microsoft veteran Charlie Kindel last spring, it was hard not to notice that he seemed to have an appropriate name for his new job, but of course Kindel was a Windows phone evangelist, not an Android expert.
What these hires really mean for Amazon’s future in mobile is not yet clear, but Argenti’s move is clearly bad news for Nokia. The company that once dominated the mobile phone industry has been slow to find its footing in the smartphone world, but its Lumia line of Windows phones have finally started to gain some traction this year. Market share has been growing for Nokia’s Windows phones, and the company recently took full control of NSN, the world’s second largest provider of mobile broadband equipment.
But Nokia has a long way to go. Smartphones now outsell feature phones, and Nokia’s core feature phone business is hurting. The company needs to succeed in the smartphone space, and since it has hitched its wagon to the Windows star, Windows apps are key. So losing the man who managed relationships with app developers is a blow at a time when Nokia can ill afford one.
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