John Paczkowski: ‘Palm WebOS Designer Matias Duarte Joining Google’

John Paczkowski:

Mobile user interface master Matias Duarte has left Palm and evidently hired on at the most obvious of places: Google.

Duarte, who led development of Palm’s webOS UI as the company’s senior director of human interface and user experience, has jumped ship, Palm confirms. And while the company refuses to tell me where he’s going, multiple sources say it’s Google, where he’ll presumably be working on Android, the company’s open-source platform for mobile devices — noncompete clauses permitting, of course.

If true, Google may be serious about taking the ugly stick out of the Android development process. This is a seriously big hire.

★ Thursday, 27 May 2010