Sam Oliver
One of the most high-profile members of Google's Android team has left the company for a handset maker in China, just over six months after Andy Rubin, former head of Android development, took on a new position.
Google confirmed this week that Hugo Barra, former vice president of product management for Android, has left the company. Barra has served as a very public face for Android, leading many of Google's product unveilings and demonstrations.
Barra has left Google to become a vice president at at Xiaomi, a Chinese smartphone maker that builds handsets that use the Android mobile operating system. Google said in a statement that the company is "excited" the former executive is "staying within the Android ecosystem."
The departure comes as Barra allegedly ended a "thorny" relationship with a co-worker at Google, according to sources who spoke with AllThingsD. Though Barra reportedly tendered his resignation before the split, that Google employee is now said to be dating Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who recently split with his own wife.
Barra's exit is the second major change to the Android team in just six months. In March, Google announced that Andy Rubin, who served as head of Android since the platform was acquired in 2005, was moving on to a "new chapter" at the company.
The major shakeup at Google has occurred as Android has established itself as the market share leader in smartphones, but also as the search company struggles to monetize the platform and end fragmentation among different hardware vendors.
Apple saw its own mobile division see major changes late last year with the departure of iOS chief Scott Forstall. That led to head designer Jony Ive taking control of Apple's iPhone and iPad operating system, leading to a major overhaul in the design of iOS 7.
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57 Comments
I'd rather see that little green fella leave; he looks spooky to me!
The Android balloon is inflating rapidly. They may have grabbed the lion share of low cost smartphones worldwide, but they have done with on a core that is in grave trouble right now. Lag, fragmentation, malware, slow progress are not the important reasons for the despair, but all the infringement of tons of patents from several companies. Fosspatents has great insight into this. They are losing battle after battle, and the motorola acquisition which was suppose to give Google enough ammo to fight back has turned sour. Right now it looks like even Google has realized that this plan has backfired, and they appear to be minimizing Android development/progress, and moving more and more resources into ChromeOS. They are slowly moving away, look at their latest Chromecast. With Samsung wanting to move away to Tizen, HTC developing their own OS - we can clearly see where this is heading. Apple need only to continue working on IOS, progressing, adding, enriching the ecosystem - and I am convinced that IOS will gain marketshare in the coming months and years.
Anyone think that Xiaomi is now going to fork Android? I don't think they're part of the OHA.
And you can't compare this to Forstall. He was released by Apple. Barra left on his own. Apple would have accounted for changes made by Forstall leaving when they made the decision - Google is now stuck trying to fill the shoes of someone leaving unexpectedly.
Googlers can't even get their personal lives under control ... without Ads / Dramas! ROFLMAO On another note, I am excited for Sergey Brin's ex-wife for kicking the guy's ass. I bet she caught him watching porn on his google glass!
Those personal 'partner' bits sound like a soap opera! "Boss takes employee's gf after dumping wife, employee leaves ..." After that I can imagine the next episode would be, "Ex employee finds way to really screw with former employer by ..." [add your own ending.]