Google Taps Amazon's David Foster To Develop New Smartphones

(RTTNews) - Google appointed David Foster, Amazon's Former Kindle Hardware Chief, as vice president of product engineering in its hardware group on Monday, The Information reported, citing a person familiar with the hiring. Foster may lead hardware development for Google's new branded line of smartphones.

The appointment comes as Google is preparing to unveil several new hardware products, including its first branded phones, widely expected to be called the Pixel and Pixel XL, on Tuesday.

In his new role, Foster reports to Rick Osterloh, a former Motorola executive who is in charge of Google's hardware projects, the report said.

At Amazon, Foster had helped develop the Kindle and Kindle Fire tablet. His most recent job was leading device development teams at Amazon's Lab126, including the Echo and Dash products.

Prior to that, he spent five and half years at Microsoft as general manager of hardware. He was a senior director at Apple from 1998 to 2004.