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One of Google’s former Android executives is leaving to join the rapidly growing Chinese phone and electronics company Xiaomi.
Hugo Barra was vice president of product management for Google’s Android team; a team he described in his farewell message on Google+ as “the most amazing group of people I’ve ever worked with”.
Barra had worked on Android for almost three years, having joined Google in 2008.
He will join Xiaomi Global as its vice president, and said he would “help them expand their incredible product portfolio and business globally”.
Beijing-based Xiaomi, which focuses on smartphone production but which also manufactures other electronics, was recently valued at $10 billion (£6.5 billion), a massive growth since the firm’s first handset launch in 2011. The expansion comes despite critics’ accusations that the company has plagiarised competitors’ ideas and lack original ideas.
Barra described his move as ‘A new Android chapter’.
