Google has united its hardware groups into a new division run by Motorola veteran Rick Osterloh to better design and propel its gadgets into the world.
Osterloh is to oversee products including Nexus phones and tablets, wearable computer Glass — now called Project Aura — Internet router OnHub, audio and video Cast devices, and experimental mobile hardware developed by its Advanced Technology and Projects group.
Google’s hardware efforts are varied and have not been well tied together. The Alphabet Inc unit has never fully committed to designing or making its own devices, preferring to let other companies handle those often less-profitable tasks. It acquired handset maker Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion in 2012, but sold it in 2014 to Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想).
However, as smartphones and other mobile devices take on more complex tasks, such as virtual and augmented reality, software and hardware has to work better together. That is something Apple Inc does well and Google might need to improve, with Osterloh’s help.
Prior to joining Google last month, Osterloh was president of Motorola Mobility, both under Google’s ownership and Lenovo’s.
Osterloh is expected to better link Google’s hardware projects together, while working more closely with software teams. Much of the software development for all this hardware is run by Hiroshi Lockheimer, the senior vice president in charge of Google’s Android and Chrome operating systems.
He is to face tackling the longer-term challenge of what connected devices would be popular beyond smartphones. Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai on Thursday last week said that the concept of the “device” might fade away.
Osterloh’s appointment follows Google’s appointment of VMware co-founder Diane Greene to oversee its cloud computing, work-based software and enterprise-focused businesses together.
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