Android
There were many great news about Android starting from the end of last month. Admob reported that Android web traffic as surpassed that of iPhone. There was also a follow up report from NPD that said Android sold more devices than iPhone in the first quarter of 2010. But back in the Lab the story is different. Apparently, some of the engineers that formed the core of the Android team have left to continue their trades in other companies. According to Venturebeat:
Erick Tseng, the senior product manager who essentially ran the Android team day to day and shepherded Google’s Nexus One phone project, left to become Facebook’s head of mobile products.Cedric Beust, a senior software engineer on the team, said he was leaving just a day later for LinkedIn. This comes on top of a few other departures earlier this spring with Bob Lee going to Square and Gummi Hafsteinsson landing at Apple by way of the Siri acquisition. At least two other mobile team members have gone to Tapjoy. There are also plenty more Android and mobile team members who are about to make the leap, we hear.
Whether or not this affect the Android team will only be seen in coming months. But it is important for Google to keep the Android train moving especially when Android is starting to gain edge over iPhone. In a world of the Apple’s total control, having a great alternative is a must. Do you think we should be scared that some of the brains behind Android left?
[via Venturebeat]
This is not really that big a problem. Android has matured significantly and so I’d expect at least some of the original people to move on to bigger, better and newer things. But it being an open source project, I’d also expect them to keep their fingers in it to some extent. The allure is difficult to resist; I went from drooling over a G1 to buying and rooting a Droid and ultimately building my own copy of the source code.
Android has definitely matured but is not always easy to replace experience.