Well...he says it has nothing to do for his enthusiasm for the product, but it seems like a very odd time for for the top Windows Phone manager to be fleeing his position.

Charlie Kindel, the Windows Phone Developer Ecosystem General Manager at Microsoft, wrote a “good-bye” blog in which he said he is leaving to form his own company: something to do with “sports, advertising, mobile, social-networking, and, of course, the cloud,” he wrote.

Kindel has been with the company for 21 years – since 1990, and has worked on a variety of products including Internet Explorer 3, Windows Millenium, Windows NT 4 and Microsoft's ActiveX security technologies. He had been in charge of the design and development of the Windows Phone 7 Application Platform for two years, writes Ed Bott on ZDNet.

Right now, things are pretty critical with Microsoft when it comes to Windows Phone. With the new version – 7.5, nicknamed “Mango” – due out in a few months, plus the pending arrival of the first Windows-powered Nokia phones ready to his stores at the end of the year, it does seem an odd time to leave. Kindel stressed in his blog, though, that he continues to have nothing but enthusiasm for the Windows Phone product.

“To the Windows Phone team: I may stop using some Microsoft products now that I’m out of here. But not Windows Phone. The BEST product Microsoft has ever built. Do not let up!” enthused Kindel on his blog post.

Given the tepid market response thus far to Windows Phone, TG Daily thinks Kindel's departure might be a good thing, and that the company could use a set of fresh eyes at the helm. Windows Phone 7 would appear to be flailing to find its footing among the wildly successful mobile platforms that are Apple's iPhone and Google's Android.

It will be interesting to see whom they bring in to replace Kindel.

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