Google hires former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh to head new hardware division that includes Nexus, Chromecast, Chromebooks, Pixel C, OnHub, ATAP, and Glass
Google is building a new hardware division under former Motorola chief Rick Osterloh — Rick Osterloh is coming back to Google.
Context & Ripple Effects
In 2016 Google's device efforts were a loose collection of product names — Nexus, Chromecast, Chromebooks, Pixel C, OnHub, ATAP, Glass — with no single owner. Bringing back Rick Osterloh, who ran Motorola before Google sold it, puts one executive over all of them and signals that hardware is now a first-class division rather than a side project.
The hire turned out to be the founding move of a long arc: Osterloh went on to restructure the hardware organization around Assistant integration, steer the HTC phone-talent acquisition, and eventually lead the Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, and Photos created in 2024.
First-order effects
- Google's previously scattered device lines now report to a single SVP, giving Nexus, Chromecast, Chromebooks, Pixel C, OnHub, ATAP, and Glass one roadmap owner instead of separate fiefdoms.
- Osterloh returns to Google after running Motorola, immediately taking responsibility for both existing products and experimental units like ATAP and Glass.
Second-order effects
- A unified hardware division creates the structure that later absorbed Apple-trained silicon expertise — the same year-plus arc that brought former Apple chip lead Manu Gulati in as Lead SoC Architect.
- Competing device makers face a Google that pairs its own phones and home devices with Assistant, forcing rivals to decide whether to ship Google's assistant on their own hardware.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Google's org design keeps consolidating around software-hardware integration: the 2016 hardware division is the direct ancestor of the AI-focused Platforms and Devices group announced in 2024.
- The move establishes the template of hiring operators from acquired companies to run consolidated divisions — a structure that outlasts any single product line, including ones like Glass that later fade.
The trend: Google has spent the decade since this hire folding fragmented device projects into ever-larger integrated organizations, culminating in an AI-centered Platforms and Devices structure.