Chennai-born Sundar Pichai to head Google Android division
Chennai-lad Sundar Pichai, an Indian American computer engineer, will lead Google’s Android, the most used mobile operating system in the world.
The 40-year-old Pichai is the Senior Vice-President of Chrome, Google Apps and Android at Google Inc.
An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Pichai will replace Andy Rubin, who was the key architect of Android.
Pichai joins the list of famous alumni of the institute such as Arun Sarin, the former chief executive of Vodafone Group, and Vinod Gupta, Chairman of Everest Group, a US-based venture capital and private equity firm, to hold a high ranking post in a global firm.
After IIT Kharagpur, Pichai did his higher education at Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University.
Google’s CEO Larry Page in his blog on the announcement said that Pichai will lead Android in addition to his existing work with Chrome and Apps.
“Sundar has a talent for creating products that are technically excellent yet easy to use — and he loves a big bet. Take Chrome, for example. In 2008, people asked whether the world really needed another browser. Today Chrome has hundreds of millions of happy users and is growing fast thanks to its speed, simplicity and security,” said Page.
“So while Andy’s a really hard act to follow, I know Sundar will do a tremendous job doubling down on Android as we work to push the ecosystem forward,” Page said.
Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world. Google has a global partnership of over 60 manufacturers and over 750 million devices have been activated globally. Around 25 billion apps have now been downloaded from Google Play, he said.
raja.simhan@thehindu.co.in
Keywords: Chennai-born, Sundar Pichai, Google Android division
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