Google welcomes HTC talent, eyes future hardware

Google has finalized its deal with HTC, bringing the Taiwanese manufacturer’s core design team across to the Mountain View company. Google Senior Vice President Rick Osterloh commemorated the occasion in a short blog post, where he touched on what the HTC staff could bring to the company.

Editor's Pick

What Google buying HTC means for the mobile industry

The rumors drifted around about a possible Google purchase of HTC for only a short time before the news was confirmed, but the details were a surprise. As we now know, Google didn’t outright buy HTC, …

Osterloh said that the estimated 2,000 engineers bring “decades of experience achieving a series of ‘firsts,’” and noted HTC’s production of the first 3G smartphone (HTC Universal), the first touch-focused handset (HTC Touch) and first phone with an aluminum unibody (HTC One). Osterloh also said Google is committed to investing in its products “for the long run,” reaffirming that the new folks are there to help Google with its upcoming hardware efforts.

Google is approaching its third generation of hardware and is now producing its own smartphones, smart speakers, Chromebooks, and VR headsets. With the new workforce, Google can focus on making a better, perhaps broader, range of consumer products on a much larger scale.

Osterloh ended the post with a mention of Google’s expansion in the Asia Pacific region, stating that Taipei will become “the largest Google engineering site in APAC.”

Read our thoughts on what the aqcuisition means for Google at the link and hit us up in the comments if you know of any HTC/Android firsts—there’s definitely another out there…