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Last month, Rick Osterloh left Motorola Mobility following a big corporate structure shakeup after the company was bought by Lenovo. We weren’t sure what he was going to do, but the answer was just made clear: he’s Google’s new top guy for their hardware business.
According to Recode, Osterloh joins Google as a Senior Vice President for a new hardware group that will look to align all of Google’s hardware interests under the same roof. This business includes Nexus phones and tablets, Chromecast, consumer hardware like Chromebooks and the Pixel C, OnHub, ATAP, and the Google Glass that Google still wants you to believe is alive and well.
This move lends credence to rumors that Google and Fadell aren’t totally seeing eye-to-eye after Nest failed to live up to expectations. Fadell was long thought to be the frontrunner for running a dedicated hardware division within Google thanks to his history of creating successful products. That said, Fadell is said to still be on board as an advisor for the new team, and he will still serve in his capacity as CEO of Nest.
Osterloh is a very good choice for Google. The man moved from Product Manager to Chief Operating Officer to President of Motorola Mobility through the company’s most exciting years. He had a heavy hand in fostering a new era in Motorola that focused on solid hardware, clean software, reliable updates and trying to help the local economy. Let’s hope all those values ring as loud as they did at Motorola when he makes his way to his new office in Mountain View.
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