It has been widely reported that Amazon (AMZN) may be working on a Kindle smartphone that is expected to debut later this year. Adding more fuel to the fire, the company has hired Charlie Kindel, a former general manager at Microsoft (MSFT) who headed the development of Windows Phone’s app platform and developer experience. Little is known about Kindel’s new role at Amazon, although he revealed that he will be a director of “something secret.”

“Amazon presented an opportunity to build something new that has ginormous potential,” he said to GeekWire. “I simply couldn’t pass the opportunity up. As a double bonus, the idea that I can work in such a principled and customer focused company is really exciting to me.”

Prior to working on the Windows Phone project, Kindel worked on Windows Home Server and Windows Media Center, and was a technical advisor to the head of Microsoft’s Server & Tools Business.

Amazon’s Kindle smartphone is expected to be equipped with a 4.7-inch display and a heavily customized version of Android. The most recent rumors suggest the device will be released sometime after June this year.