Google Vice President of Android Product Management Hugo Barra announced on Thursday that he is heading to Chinese company, Xiaomi.
BBC reports that Google has confirmed Barra is leaving, with a spokesman noting, “We’ll miss him at Google and we’re excited that he is staying with the Android ecosystem."
Barra via Google+ said, “After nearly five and a half years at Google and almost three years as a member of the Android team – the most amazing group of people I’ve ever worked with in my life – I have decided to start a new career chapter.”
According to USA Today, Xiaomi Global is a phone maker that has quickly snagged a chunk of China’s cell phone market. In the last quarter, the Chinese phone maker managed to outsell Apple with the Mi 2S. The Mi 2S even bested Samsung’s Galaxy S4 for the first half of the year.
Xiaomi has been doing well in part because it prices its phones often less than half of its competition and even involves customers, through social media, in phone designs. According to CEO Lei Jun, Xiaomi was recently valued at $10 billion.
Barra has been with Google since 2008, notes the BBC.
image: Wikimedia Commons
