Google Hires Former Motorola President
April 28 2016 - 5:20PM
Dow Jones News
Google parent Alphabet Inc. is unifying its disparate hardware
projects into a new division and hiring former Motorola President
Rick Osterloh to run it.
Google said the move is designed to create one home—and one
leader—for a variety of hardware products that were previously
dotted throughout the company. The new division will include
Chromebook laptops, tablets, OnHub Wi-Fi routers and Chromecast
gadgets that stream video to televisions.
Mr. Osterloh's hardware team will take some ownership of
Google's Nexus smartphones, the flagship Android devices that
Google designs. Android chief Hiroshi Lockheimer, who also oversaw
Chromebooks and Chromecast, will maintain some say in Nexus but
will now focus mainly on software, Google said.
The new division will also include some of Google's longer-term
hardware projects, like its Glass wearable computer, which is being
retooled for commercial applications after flopping with consumers.
Mr. Osterloh's team takes Glass from Nest, Alphabet's
home-automation unit.
The Advanced Technology and Projects group, a Google research
lab for hardware, will also move under Mr. Osterloh, giving the
group a new leader since its former head, Regina Dugan, left for
Facebook Inc. earlier this month. The group is working on
interactive clothing and modular smartphones, among other
things.
Mr. Osterloh's division won't include devices for virtual
reality, a technology that has its own rapidly growing team at
Google, nor any of the futuristic hardware projects at X, such as
delivery drones or driverless cars.
Mr. Osterloh helped lead Motorola Mobility under Google after
the tech giant bought the phone maker in 2012, and he stayed on as
Motorola president after Google sold it to China's Lenovo Group
Inc. in 2014. He is now a senior vice president for hardware at
Google, reporting to Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai.
Tech news website Recode previously reported Mr. Osterloh's
return to Google.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 28, 2016 17:05 ET (21:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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