Rick Osterloh returns to Google to lead new hardware division

Rick OsterlohFormer Motorola Mobility President and COO Rick Osterloh is headed back to Google reports Re/code today. The move comes just over a month after we learned that Osterloh was leaving Motorola in a sweeping organizational and leadership restructuring effort. Reporting to CEO Sundar Pichai, he will head up a new hardware division that will move all of Google’s hardware projects under one business unit.

The new hardware division will include not only the Google line of smartphones and tablets but also the Chromecast TV streaming device, Chromebook laptops and new Pixel C and the onHub wireless home router. Also moving into the new unit will be a number of  ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) projects including the Project Ara modular smartphone and Project Aura, the team working on the next version of Google Glass.

Senior Vice President Hiroshi Lockheimer who heads up the Android unit will focus more on the software and platform side of things now. He’ll work closely with Osterloh on Android and Android Wear-powered devices.

Perhaps we will learn more about Google’s new hardware division at next month’s Google I/O 2016. Maybe Osterloh himself will take to the stage to unveil some new hardware products.

A Google representative has confirmed that Rick Osterloh is the company’s latest Senior Vice President.

Osterloh joined Motorola when Good Technology was acquired in 2006. He first became a Google employee when it acquired Motorola in 2012. He stayed on with Motorola when Google sold it to Lenovo in 2014.



Source : Re/code