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Google might poach Windows Phone’s biggest app developer

Once again, Microsoft is off its game.

 

Imad Khan

Tech

Posted on Oct 23, 2014   Updated on May 30, 2021, 8:40 am CDT

Rudy Huyn is a French app developer and an avid fan of Windows Phone. Huyn has created more than 20 apps for Microsoft’s mobile operating system, and including mobile apps for Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Wikipedia, 9gag, Secret, and Dropbox. He has also created his own apps like Fuse and TV Show. With a developer showing this much commitment, you’d think Microsoft would have taken notice and hired him.

Not quite.

It seems that Google has taken notice, however. The search giant and perennial Microsoft competitor has already extended him a job offer.

I’ve already received an offer for a job from Google but never from Microsoft 😆 – shared using #6cret https://t.co/wrhomBXzw5

— Rudy Huyn (@RudyHuyn) October 22, 2014

When Microsoft lacked true Instagram and Vine apps, its market leaders instructed cell phone sales associates to use Huyn’s apps to sell its products. I’m speaking from personal experience here.

It’s been one of the most frustrating aspects of Microsoft’s entry into the mobile space. There is so much potential for Windows Phone, but incompetence in the market has prevented it from excelling. Microsoft just doesn’t seem to have an ear to the ground and is always playing catch-up.

It wasn’t until 2010 that Microsoft officially introduced Windows Phone. Already three years late to the party, the company was not—and in many cases still isn’t—aggressive enough at courting app developers to expand its app ecosystem. Even now, after every other company has announced a smartwatch, Microsoft still lags behind. Only recently have we started hearing rumors that a Windows watch is incoming.

The company also lacks a compelling device to push at U.S. retail stores this holiday season. Verizon has already discontinued the Lumia Icon, a hero device for Microsoft that isn’t even a year old yet. Right now the company is pushing the Lumia 635, a great budget phone, but it looks like a race to the bottom.

Now it seems that Microsoft’s slow reaction time will lead to it losing one of its most prominent developers. That’s just embarrassing.

Seriously, why hasn’t Microsoft hired this guy yet?

Image via Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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*First Published: Oct 23, 2014, 1:29 pm CDT