Another high-ranking Windows veteran has quit ranks, in a move that some are interpreting as an indication that Microsoft Corp. is unhappy with how Windows 2000 has been marketed.
Jim Ewel, a 12-year Microsoft employee who most recently handled product marketing of Windows 2000 Server, is the latest company official to defect.
The timing of Ewel's departure is significant. Industry watchers have said they believe that corporate sales of Windows 2000, especially on the server side, have not been as robust as expected.
Microsoft launched Windows 2000 just about one year ago, on Feb. 17, 2000. The company has promised to release shipment numbers for Windows 2000 Server over the past few months, but still has yet to do so.
Ewel: Page not found
A Microsoft spokesman said that Ewel had announced internally in November his plans to retire. Ewel's official last day with the company was Dec. 22. The spokesman added that Microsoft was in search of a replacement.
Ewel did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Ewel, former vice president of Windows server marketing, joined Microsoft in 1989. He first worked as an enterprise sales manager in Chicago. He also did a stint as SQL Server group product manager. From 1994 to 1995, he was responsible for Windows NT Server and BackOffice product marketing. Ewel was instrumental in the launches of Windows NT Server 3.5 and 3.51.
Ewel also oversaw the team at Microsoft charged with preparing competitive responses to Microsoft rivals' technologies, including offerings from Sun Microsystems Inc., Oracle Corp. and various Linux vendors.
Microsoft has removed Ewel's biography page from the corporate Web site.
Corporate housecleaning?
Ewel is the latest of a growing number of Microsoft executives to leave the company. In the past year alone, a number of top Microsoft officials have resigned including vice president of developer marketing Tod Neilsen; chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold; former Interactive Media Group chief Pete Higgins; and Windows group vice president Paul Maritz.
One former Microsoft insider claimed that Microsoft's top brass is unhappy with how Windows 2000 has been marketed and that some "corporate housecleaning" is the result.
"It's time for a little shakeup on the Windows team," said the former insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "They did a crappy job of marketing Windows 2000."
But there's a problem, the insider continued. "Nobody wants to work on the Windows team inside Microsoft any more. There are lots of open positions. And Windows is still one of the most important products for the company's success."
Microsoft is slated to discuss its Windows 2000 sales, among other topics, when it announces its fiscal second-quarter earnings on Jan. 18. In December, Microsoft issued a warning that both its fiscal second-quarter and fiscal year 2001 sales would fall short of its original estimates, both by about 5 percent.
As a result of Ewel's departure, Microsoft lacks a Windows marketing champion. Group Vice President Jim Allchin, who returned from a several-month sabbatical in September, is continuing to oversee Windows development. Allchin is focusing a lot of his energies on Microsoft's next-generation Windows client, code-named Whistler Personal, said Microsoft officials.
Senior Vice President Brian Valentine, Allchin's right-hand man, is charged with pushing ahead on Whistler server development.
