David Foster, vice president of hardware engineering at the Amazon-owned Lab126 in San Francisco has joined Google, and will head the company’s Pixel division as the VP of product engineering at the company’s hardware group, The Information reports. Foster has been with Amazon for almost six years and has been the main person responsible for the development of Kindle and Kindle Fire devices. In addition to that, he oversaw the research and development for Amazon Echo, Fire TV and Dash, the company’s first Internet of Things (IoT) gadget.
Interestingly enough, Amazon isn’t the only tech giant Foster worked for. Prior to getting hired by one of the largest online retailers in the world, this Oxford graduate has been the hardware manager at Microsoft for over five years. Among other things, he was managing hardware research and development for the Windows Phone Chassis program and Zune HD. Back in the late nineties, Foster was at Apple, involved in various projects involving core technologies. His four-decade career originally started at IBM back in the late eighties. In other words, if Google was looking for an experienced product manager who both understands technology and consumers, the Mountain View tech giant has probably found the right man as Foster has a rather stellar resume.
All in all, this appointment is definitely another huge statement of intent by Google regarding hardware and its vision of the future. With the upcoming launch of Pixel and Pixel XL, Google Glass 2, and a plethora of other products, it’s clear that the Internet giant has big plans for consumer electronics. As to how big, exactly, we’ll find out later today after Google’s huge hardware event in San Francisco finally kicks off. Amazon declined to comment on Foster’s departure while Google is yet to officially announce his appointment. However, sources report that the ex-Amazon employee hasn’t replaced anyone at Google, adding that his new position has just opened and wasn’t previously filled. Being a vice president of product engineering at the company’s hardware group, Forster will report directly to Rick Osterloh, head of the tech giant’s unified hardware division who returned to Google earlier this year.