Head of Windows Phone moving to Windows 8 for “time-critical” Windows Phone opportunity

Steve Ballmer has moved Andy Lees, President of Windows Phone, to a mysterious position in the Windows 8 team that will still involve Windows Phone.

“I have asked Andy Lees to move to a new role working for me on a time-critical opportunity focused on driving maximum impact in 2012 with Windows Phone and Windows 8,” Ballmer said in an internal memo seen by AllThingsD. “We have tremendous potential with Windows Phone and Windows 8, and this move sets us up to really deliver against that potential.”

Andy Lees will report to CEO Steve Ballmer and focus on ways that Microsoft can work across multiple types of devices from phones to slates to PCs

Terry Myerson will take over some of his duties, business development, marketing and other responsibilities, but will not take the roll as president.

Microsoft did not clarify his exact role, leaving it open to speculation.  We prefer to believe Andy is either heading an effort to get Windows Phone apps to run on Windows 8, or porting the Windows 8 kernel as rapidly as possible to Windows Phone.

“In the three years Andy has been leading the phone group, we’ve come a long way,” Ballmer said. “We reset our strategy, built a strong team that delivered (Windows Phone 7) and (the Mango update) and created critical new partnerships and ecosystem around Windows Phone. That is a ton of progress in a brief period of time, and I’m excited for Terry and team to keep driving forward and for Andy to dig into a new challenge.”

What do our readers think Andy’s new challenge will be? Let us know below.

Source: AllthingsD.com

Thanks MobilePaddy for the tip.