"Former member of the Android team here. Honestly, Hugo leaving isn't a very big deal at all as he never really contributed much to Android (or Google in general). He started as middle management under Vic, based in London, when the Android and Mobile teams were two separate entities.
No one really wanted Hugo, and it was weird that he ended up on the Android team to begin with. He was pretty much a figurehead as Andy was the one really running the show.
The Android team is big enough these days with solid leadership (Dave Burke, etc.) that a single person leaving (other than Andy of course), isn't going to change much in the day to day operation of Android."
Sounds a bit revisionist. Obviously a single employee won't make or break a project, but he clearly contributed a lot to android given his position. If he held that position and really didn't contribute anything, then I have to wonder what the hell is going on at Google.
>>I have to wonder what the hell is going on at Google.
The same thing that goes on in nearly any big company?
Its not like these people are Steve Jobs like product managers giving everything they have to the product/project. Most of the time there is some UI designer which does all the design work and these people just come in as some kind of reviewers to give some general improvement comments.
Apart from that its just usual decision making, book keeping, employee appraisal management and your general bureaucracy work is what they do 99.99% of the times. Add your usual corporate politics to keep their position in the hierarchy maintained.
Thankfully for them Apple showed/shows them much of the UI direction. So they don't to really work on any paradigm changing innovation. If they can get out some thing similar looking, without big obvious mistakes they can simply come in and push their 9-5 jobs maintaining the status quo without any real problem.
He most likely moved on as he did not find it possible to climb the corporate ladder any further at Google as the current set of execs are well entrenched into their jobs and may not quit until they naturally retire.
> Thankfully for them Apple showed/shows them much of the UI direction. So they don't to really work on any paradigm changing innovation.
Yeah, Mattias Duarte, the man behind WebOS cards that pretty much everyone including Apple is ripping off - I am sure he likes to sit all day letting things happen on their own - like all the post Gingerbread UI changes for example. Sure.
This has to be worrying to Google investors that one of the main decision makers is sleeping with someone who is a manager of one of Google's specific products.
What if this was a few years ago and she was on Google Wave or any other one of Google's now discontinued products?
3 things that the VP of Android could conceivably know that could confer a material advantage to Xiaomi (and/or a disadvantage to other OEMs):
1) Google's future strategic plans for Android (itself and in relation to Chrome)
2) knowledge of what some big OEMs are working on (esp likely re: Nexus hardware)
3) the roadmap for Motorola (corporate "firewall" between Google and Motorola being, well, less than robust...)
he could know all of these, some of them, or even none of them. But it is certainly not outside the bounds of possibility that he could know these things.
33 comments
[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 88.9 ms ] threadhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6293576
No one really wanted Hugo, and it was weird that he ended up on the Android team to begin with. He was pretty much a figurehead as Andy was the one really running the show.
The Android team is big enough these days with solid leadership (Dave Burke, etc.) that a single person leaving (other than Andy of course), isn't going to change much in the day to day operation of Android."
-- former member of Android team.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1laqjr/androids_hug...
The same thing that goes on in nearly any big company?
Its not like these people are Steve Jobs like product managers giving everything they have to the product/project. Most of the time there is some UI designer which does all the design work and these people just come in as some kind of reviewers to give some general improvement comments.
Apart from that its just usual decision making, book keeping, employee appraisal management and your general bureaucracy work is what they do 99.99% of the times. Add your usual corporate politics to keep their position in the hierarchy maintained.
Thankfully for them Apple showed/shows them much of the UI direction. So they don't to really work on any paradigm changing innovation. If they can get out some thing similar looking, without big obvious mistakes they can simply come in and push their 9-5 jobs maintaining the status quo without any real problem.
He most likely moved on as he did not find it possible to climb the corporate ladder any further at Google as the current set of execs are well entrenched into their jobs and may not quit until they naturally retire.
Huh!? If anything, I think Apple's the one taking a few pages out of the Holo playbook with their new found love for flat UI design in iOS 7.
Yeah, Mattias Duarte, the man behind WebOS cards that pretty much everyone including Apple is ripping off - I am sure he likes to sit all day letting things happen on their own - like all the post Gingerbread UI changes for example. Sure.
What if this was a few years ago and she was on Google Wave or any other one of Google's now discontinued products?
1) Google's future strategic plans for Android (itself and in relation to Chrome)
2) knowledge of what some big OEMs are working on (esp likely re: Nexus hardware)
3) the roadmap for Motorola (corporate "firewall" between Google and Motorola being, well, less than robust...)
he could know all of these, some of them, or even none of them. But it is certainly not outside the bounds of possibility that he could know these things.
If he is the innocent party, if there is such a thing, in this love Quadrangle he might be quite bitter and seek to hurt Brin as much as possible.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/sergey-brin...
I'd like to think this is complete nonsense, but my life experiences say it's certainly possible.
Seems like these guys should have more than enough women chasing their money to not have to squabble over any one in particular.