“Hugo Barra, whose official title is vice president of product management for Android, has been one of the more public faces of the mobile operating system, appearing frequently at Google press events and at its annual I/O developer conference. It was Barra, for example, who showed off the Nexus 7 tablet at its recent launch in San Francisco,” Ina Fried and John Paczkowski report for AllThingsD. “Barra, sources said, is leaving for a job at Xiaomi, a fast-growing Chinese phone maker. Xiaomi, which builds Android phones for the Chinese market, prides itself not only on its high-end hardware, but also on the software it adds on top of Google’s operating system.”
“Sources close to the situation told AllThingsD that Barra recently tendered his resignation, but that it came before a recent thorny personal situation related to the end of a romantic relationship he had with another Googler,” Fried and Paczkowski report. “That Googler is now seeing the company’s co-founder Sergey Brin, but sources said his decision to leave the company is unrelated and was made before he was aware of the new relationship. As AllThingsD reported earlier today, Brin has split with his wife, and is in involved with another Google employee, a difficult and fraught situation.”
MacDailyNews Take: Soap opera. Go try to pick up an NHL team, too, while you’re at it, Sergey.
Fried and Paczkowski report, “Barra’s exit from Google is a significant one for the company and its Android division. Earlier this year, Andy Rubin, creator of Android, abruptly stepped down from that team, ostensibly to ‘start a new chapter at Google.’ Coming as it does so quickly in the aftermath of Rubin’s pivot, Barra’s exit could cause ripples in one of Google’s most important divisions, the front line of its battle for mobile.”
MacDailyNews Take: At which it makes no profit, only losses, as it has stupidly put itself into the position of laboring as a free operating system developer for companies ranging from Amazon to ZTE.
Fried and Paczkowski report, “Barra’s departure, along with Rubin’s shift, raises questions about just where Google will take Android in the coming years, and who will guide that effort.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Google co-founder Sergey Brin splits with wife Anne Wojcicki amidst romantic relationship with another Google employee – August 29, 2013
That’s it, Sergey… Keep doing what you’re doing… You’re doing great…
It sounds like a gold digger is moving on up.
Android will be given to the open community. The masters at google know Ellison will win on appeal.
Google will claim to go back to its roots, search. WS shysters will laud the move, rewarding google stock a PE of 50 to 1.
They will clean-up.
MDN is not a clever person.
Android is massively profitable for Google. There’s the play store and more importantly it’s a platform for various Google services like Search, YouTube, G , etc.
Most play store Apps are free. Google makes more money on ads in Apple products than all the money they make in all the services they have except Google Search.
Green is an ugly color.
“Green is an ugly color.’
Especially when coupled with envy.
Troll much?
– Google has publicly stated it makes two times more money off Apple’s iOS than Android
– In the Oracle Google lawsuit, Google disclosed that it has made 550 million of Android since inception or roughly 100 + million a year. That is peanuts. It has spent 12500 million to buy Motorola to protect Android (Sanjay Jha was threatening to use Motorola patents to sue other android OEMS). Considering Motorola LOSES money how many decades if you minus Motorola costs before Android even BREAKS EVEN? Now Page has learnt Motorola patents are mostly FRAND and useless in lawsuits…
— Google pays apple over $1 billion a year to put Google services on iOS and Google search to be iOS default.
— Android makes nearly NO money whatsoever in Asia and other parts of the developing world where the VAST MAJORITY of Android growth is (giving it that stats that IDC etc tout). Android phones in China run Bidu etc. Millions of China ‘Android’ O phones do NOT run google search and cannot load stock android Apps.
Many other android phones run Yahoo, bing etc.
There are also THIRD PARTY APP STORES so Google play gets cut out.
– And many people depend on PIRATE APPS.
in one android developer conference nearly every developer said their app had been pirated so no cash.
– EVERY DUDE LOOKING AT WEBSITES, YOUTUBE etc ON A PHONE ETC IS NOT LOOKING AT WEBSITES , YOUTUBE etc ON HIS DESKTOP or LAPTOP SO THE NET GAIN FOR GOOGLE IS ZERO!!
AND:
the square inches on a phone is LESS than on a desktop so FEWER ADS!!! So LESS money for Google!!!!
Google supporters don’t get this very easy to understand point!
(only gain is when mobile devices extend range i.e people use it while walking but in this doesn’t offset loss in desktop ads acreage. ).
—
What Google SHOULD have done but was too stupid and greedy to do:
Google should have tied itself like Siamese twins to Apple. Today iOS would be like iPod controlling the market, Google would be making TONS more money (goog already makes more money off iOs today than android) instead of all the android profits going to Samsung etc.
Google should have used Android (in the Lab) as THREAT to apple so that Apple won’t ever abandon it and develop its own search and services abilities (like it’s doing now with SIRI and maps). Google would have made more money, saved R&D and android support costs, AND avoided paying 12500 million for money losing motorola…
I’d hate to appear as a fanboy or a Google supporter but I have to share this.
I read from an infograph that Google makes 1.5 million dollars of profit from Android in an hour. Now, Iam sure that that number is exaggerated but it’s closer to the truth than you realize.
During the I/O Google announced that 900 million Android activations. Almost all Android phones come with Google as the default search engine, a YouTube app, Google maps, Gmail etc. In the daily life of an average Android user they must use this services passively. Even if half of that 900 million users is still active that is still a massive profit for Google.
Google continues to grow in terms of profit even as the world shifts from desktops to smartphones and tablets and this is largely thanks to Android. I think it was wise for Google not to put all their eggs in the iOS basket because the smartphone market hadn’t taken shape and who knows? Maybe windows would have been the new Android and Google doesn’t have an amicable relationship with Microsoft, maybe Apple would have developed services that rivals Google’s e.t.c.
Desktops may have a larger display for ads but more people use smartphones and at a higher frequency.
Google continue to heavily invest in Android what with the motorola acquisition, nexus brand phones, r&d, e.t.c even in the I/O Android received more attention from Google than most of their other products.
the 550 million since inception to the end of 2011 was a figure put out by google in the lawsuit with Oracle to assess damages. So is google lying?
Guardian:
“Android generated less than $550m in revenues for Google between 2008 and the end of 2011, if figures provided by the search giant as part of a settlement offer with Oracle ahead of an expected patent and copyright infringement trial are an accurate guide.”
that’s from all android profits including search and services. Perhaps it’s a big bigger now but it’s going to be like I said DECADES to pay of 12500 million for motorola.
Gizmodo on Android and IOs google profits:
“All of those iOS devices means that Google actually earns four times as much from its deal with Apple than from Android.”
note Gizmodo as seen by the lost iPhone case is no friend of Apple.
Techpionions on Google android profits:
“Google’s desktop search model to mobile, Android has utterly failed. Google search on the desktop is one of the most profitable businesses in the world. Android on mobile is not only virtually profitless … your subtract the extraordinary expenditures involved in creating and supporting it, it is almost certainly a net loss for Google. ”
asymco:
“Charles Arthur concluded that Google obtains four times more revenue from iOS than from Android. My estimates indicate that in 2011 the revenue ratio was closer to 5”
asymco is basing his data from financial report data from Google and Apple.
Gizmodo:
“Former FTC official and current Google employee Susan Creighton told the committee that Apple’s iOS devices accounted for 2/3 of Google’s mobile-search traffic.”
i.e that remaining one third is divided among Android, Blackberry,, etc.
you say
“Almost all Android phones come with Google as the default search engine,”
BUT largest android growth market is CHINA and except via Hong Kong they don’t run Google search. China is the place that boosts those astronomical android numbers from IDC etc.
Thenextweb:
“80% of the Android smartphones that will be sold in China will have Baidu as its default search engine, according to a report from TechWeb. This will further boost Baidu’s uncontested dominance in the country, holding about 75% of the search market”
that’s HUNDREDS of MiLLIONS of android phones!
in the U.S currently iOS outsells android.
valuewalk:
“Right now, Baidu dominates the Chinese search market with 80% market share. Google on the other hand is witnessing a bit of a slowdown. This year has not been a good year for Google so far who has lost 7% of its market share to Baidu and it stands to lose once Apple integrates with Baidu on its iOS system. ”
TechAsia 2013
“Google has lost a lot of share in the past year (5.54 percent down to 2.13 percent from June 2012 to June 2013) in China and is now mired in fifth place.”
etc etc etc
I didn’t provide the links as my post might be considered spam but you can ‘google’ it yourself.
Isn’t Xiaomi the Chinese smartphone company that mimicks Apple’s marketing?
Do no evil Sergey
He quit Google for the Chinese company because he won’t be spied on as much.
Looks like he left since Sergey was banging his chick.
What a mess… And there is no pride in taking Android and putting your own crap on top… That’s the most ridicus statement ever… Only a Chinese company can take pride in something like that.