Looks like Palm is suffering a bit of post-acquisition talent drain. Mobile user interface master
Matias Duarte has left Palm (PALM) and evidently hired on at the most obvious of places: Google (GOOG).
Duarte, who lead development of Palms webOS UI as the companys Senior Director of Human Interface and User Experience, has jumped ship, Palm confirms. And while the company refuses to tell me where hes going, multiple sources say its Google, where hes working on the development of Android, the companys open source platform for mobile devices.
Duartes departure is a significant loss for Palm and
its new owner Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which has said
it plans to double down on webOS. His prowess with user experience and information design is well known in the industry. Before he landed at Palm in 2007, Duarte was design chief at
Helio. And prior to that he led the team that created
the Danger Hiptop mobile device. When
Palm announced the Pre at the Consumer Electronics Show in January of 2009, it was Duarte that introduced the design of webOS.
So, as I said, a real loss for Palm as it heads to its new home at HP. And a bittersweet moment for Duarte who had great hopes for Palms reinvention. As he wrote in
a 2009 blog post, When I started in this field, the Palm V was the unquestioned leader in mobile devices. To this day I believe it represents one of the best consumer electronic products ever created. I always aspired to match Palm in simplicity, usability and design so now that Im here, I feel like a kid whos just been handed the keys to Daddys convertible.
Looks like youve got the keys to the Segway now, my friend.
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