Robbie Bach on “Act II” after Microsoft

At an Microsoft Alumni Foundation event recently, former President of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, Robbie Bach took to the stage to explain what he has been doing after leaving Microsoft at end of 2010.

Even though the story he tells of his path to discovering the meaning of giving through charity and philanthropy is respectfully important, he made short reflection on his 22 years at the company which included a fun and honest quip about the short-lived product that no one talks about now.

“There was that KIN thing that didn’t turn out so well”. Heh.

On a related note, at the same event Bill and Melinda Gates also spoke about their current philanthropic work with some interesting references back to their time at Microsoft. For example, “the last 1% (of polio) is kind of like that last 1% of bugs in a piece of software that proves to be non-linearly difficult“. Too true.

3 insightful thoughts

    1. Not from what I read. As I understand, Kin was a different product from a different team that competed with a separate team that eventually built Windows Phone 7. Kin lost the fight and was shelved quite quickly after launch, it’s team disbanded and all resources devoted to Windows Phone 7. Pretty much the same situation as Courier vs. Windows 8, except Kin made it to launch (albeit even though it didn’t stay on the market) whereas Courier didn’t.

  1. He’s still maintaining the fiction of having left instead of being forced out, huh? Bach should have been fired and replaced years earlier.

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