Smartphone Thoughts: Derek Brown: A Legacy of Creative Windows Mobile Marketing

Creativity in Marketing
The next few years saw many changes in PDA landscape, but Derek was always at the forefront of connecting and learning from users of his company's product. Derek was the pinnacle of a product evangelist – he used Pocket PCs daily, and often turned to his team of MVPs for help when things weren't working quite right. The accounts payable department can vouch for how high Derek's GPRS bill was - he was fanatical about going wireless at every opportunity, because he understood the coming paradigm shift with wireless. Derek always seemed to love his job, and he had fun with everything he did.


When the advertising agency needed someone for their Pocket PC photo shoot, several Microsoft employees were tapped for the roles, including Derek. He played the role of a medical doctor, ready to use a wireless Pocket PC to reduce paperwork and devote more time to his patients. He looks the part, doesn't he?

Derek is one of the most creative people I know, and he was always coming up with new ways of engaging the community of users, whether it was Pocket PC Fanfests, a stretch Hummer skinned with the Pocket PC branding, or launching PocketPC.com and making it a driving force in the Pocket PC community for nearly two years. And let's not forget Derek's idea to hire a truck that transforms into a mobile presentation theater, then go to eleven cities across the USA in twelve weeks, showing people what Pocket PCs and the then-nascent Smartphones could do. The man was tireless!


One of the events at an early Pocket PC Fanfest – it was a infrared beaming scavenger hunt where Pocket PC users collected things from each other.


The massive stretch HumVee was sheathed in the Pocket PC colours and logos. Riding from a Las Vegas trade show in that thing was great! :-)


The Mobile Experience Tour truck was a modern-day Transformer – this truck went from a normal 18-wheeler to a full theater with 50" plasma monitors and capable of seating 60+ people, all within a few hours.

Few people know this, but my work as a writer and managing editor for PocketPC.com gave me the financial freedom to dedicate a great deal of time to Pocket PC Thoughts in the first two years of its existence. So in a very tangible way, Derek is responsible for what Pocket PC Thoughts has become – as if I didn't owe the guy enough already! ;-)

An Eye To The Future
Derek also had an eye for talented, passionate people who could help him carry the torch – Beth Goza's enthusiasm built upon Derek's foundation of community, and she continued the work he started by engaging opinion leaders from around the world with the Mobius conference that continues to this day, led by Jason Gordon. As Derek rose in rank within Microsoft, he always remained approachable and willing to listen to Pocket PC users, even going where angels fear to treat: online forums. I'm sure many of you remember reading messages from Derek at various Web sites and newsgroups. Derek never shied away from engaging with Pocket PC users, even when they were angrily frothing at the mouth over hot issues like the close button, price level, or eBook DRM (just ask our own Ed Hansberry how he first met Derek).

Derek was always focused on one thing: growing the platform, making it succeed. I remember contacting him and asking him to send a developer the Pocket PC SDK, because this developer was very interested in developing applications for the Pocket PC, but didn't have access to a credit card in order to pay the $15 shipping charge. Within a few days, that developer had the SDK, and let's just say he's been quite productive ever since. :lol: Derek didn't have to care about things like that, but he did, and I believe that the success Windows Mobile has achieved today was heavily contributed to by Derek Brown.

A Mentor, A Teacher, A Friend
Throughout the past several years, Derek has been many things to me: a mentor, friend, employer, and teacher. I learned much from Derek, both in my successes and failures at the tasks he gave me. Perhaps the most important lesson of all is the tremendous value of online communities of like-minded individuals. That lesson forms the core mission of Thoughts Media Inc., and serves as the basis for the career that I have today.

Although Derek has moved to a different product group, I have no doubt that the Small Business Server world will be as transformed by Derek's enthusiasm, creativity, and sheer energy as the Pocket PC world has been. Derek, your contributions to the world of Mobile Devices will be missed, but not forgotten. I wish you the very best in your new career field! :way to go:

Now I’d like to turn it over to you, our readers: what are your memories of Derek’s involvement in the Pocket PC and Smartphone world? Did you meet him at an event, or see him give a presentation? Do you have a favourite story about Derek and his work in the mobile devices world? Let's hear them!