In a rather crazy move, Joe Marini, now a former Windows Phone manager, has been fired after breaking Microsoft’s strict social networking policy. In a few tweets to followers, Marini stated that he “loved” the new Nokia phone that will be running Windows Phone.
Marini was the manager in charge of IE9 development for the Windows Phone platform, and was held in high regard by Microsoft, but his tweet about the unreleased Nokia device (possibly Sea Ray) was his demise.
In the tweet Marini gave nothing but praise for the Nokia device. Marini told his follwers that the top secret device was one of the slickest looking Nokia phones he had ever seen, and that it had a good camera, responsive user interface, and nice touches on the body construction. His only complaint was that he wished it had a larger screen.
The whole situation started back on September 7th when Marini posted the first tweet. Not stopping there after the first policy violation, he went on to post more tweets to followers who were asking questions about the device.
It is not uncommon for companies to have such strict rules when it comes to social media use. Employees are told to be smart about the use of social services such as Twitter and Facebook, but Marini was anything but smart. Surely he knew talking about a secret device would get him fired?
Joe Marini now leaves the Windows Phone team in what is no doubt the most exciting time for the mobile operating system since it was launched in October 2010. Windows Phone Mango is due to be released within the next few days, and dozens of news handsets (including the Nokia devices) are set to be released this fall.