Tim Sneath will join Google’s Flutter team

Nov 20, 2017 13:52 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft employee Tim Sneath, who spent no less than 17 years with the company, announced in a blog post that he’s leaving the software giant to work for Google on the new Flutter mobile framework.

Sneath started his post by emphasizing how great Microsoft is, explaining that he company has “incredibly diverse interests” and is “filled with talented people.”

Despite the good parts, however, the former Microsoft Program Manager who worked on a series of projects for developers, discussed what he described as the “missteps” that the Redmond-based software giant embraced beginning with the Windows Vista era.

“Microsoft failed to adjust rapidly to the new competitive threats posed by the rise of the standards-based web and the resurgence of Apple and the iPhone. Its rapid growth left it with the defender’s dilemma of being attacked by all sides, while also being unwilling to sacrifice existing businesses for new opportunities,” Sneath says, pointing out that Microsoft was distracted by the challenge of getting Windows Vista right.

Projects that failed

He goes on to explain that Silverlight, Internet Explorer, and Windows Phone have all bit the dust one by one due to various drawbacks, explaining that it all led to client developers being “caught in the crossfire.”

This led to customers running away as well, and the best example is definitely Windows Phone, which lost all of its users for Android and iOS.

“And so when ‘Metro’ (UWP) was introduced as a reset for the Windows API, leaving behind the massive existing Windows XP and Windows 7 user base in pursuit of an unproven new touch-centric UI, developers largely shrugged and continued down the paths they had already chosen,” Sneath continued.

As for his role at Google, the former Microsoft employee explains he’ll be part of the Flutter team, working on the new mobile app SDK to bring it from alpha to a stable development stage. He provides a short technical description of this project as well, explaining that it makes it possible to create apps for Android and iOS easier and with more advanced features than ever before.