Google hires key Apple chip designer John Bruno , II Another Apple Engineer Joins Google, Fueling Rumors of Production Of In-house Mobile Chips ,II Google hires veteran Apple chip designer; Pixel custom mobile CPU development gets massive boost

[Representational Image] Google hires veteran Apple chip designer; Pixel custom mobile CPU development gets massive boost . In Picture: A 3D printed Android mascot Bugdroid is seen in front of a Google logo in this illustration taken July 9, 2017. Picture taken July 9, 2017.

Earlier in the year, Google had paid $1.1 billion to HTC to take control over the latter's R&D and engineering unit that is responsible for Google's Pixel smartphones to access related patents (non-exclusive). The deal also includes transfer of HTC's mobile phone development staff to its Mountain View headquarters.

Before Pixel phones, Google had been offering Android software to third-party OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). This apparently helped the company heap more revenue as mobile phones became more ubiquitous than PCs. Currently, Google's Android powers four out of every five phones in the world. However, software version fragmentation is highly skewed compared to Apple's iOS, which powers iPhones, iPads and iPods, as the former has no control of phone hardware.

For instance, the 2017-series Android Oreo, which was announced in August has a dismal adoption rate of less than one percent (till December 11, 2017) out of more than one billion devices. In comparison, iOS 11 announced in September has reached 59 percent (till December 4, 2017) of all the Apple devices.

[Representational Image] Google hires veteran Apple chip designer; Pixel custom mobile CPU development gets massive boost In Picture: Google app icon seen on a smartphone screenREUTERS/Dado Ruvic

With the acquisition and recent hiring spree of the chip design experts, Google is steadily gaining full control of both hardware and software aspects of Pixel phone series and related connected devices and be able to compete with full force against established players like Apple and Samsung

Barely six months after it was revealed that Google employed Manu Gulati, a former Apple CPU Architect, the company has been discovered to have drafted another Apple engineer into its team.  This time around, the tech giant has deployed chip designer John Bruno who until recently was in charge of Apple’s silicon competitive analysis group. Bruno’s team at Apple made sure that the chips used inside Apple devices like the iPhone and iPad were always ahead of those used by competitors.

John Bruno’s rich profile as seen on his LinkedIn account also included a stint at Advanced Micro Devices, where he was a head engineer before heading off to Apple. At AMD, he worked on the development of the Fusion line of chips the chip design at ATI. Presently, John Bruno’s LinkedIn profile shows that he is a “System Architect” for Google.

Google is reportedly in the early stages of developing its own line of in-house mobile chips that would be utilised on future Pixel phones and other mobile devices. With such high-profile recruitment from Apple who unarguably has the best mobile chipsets in the market, we could see Google launching its own line of chips as early as next year. But we can’t say if Google will take the risk of introducing a relatively new chipset on its 2018 flagship Pixel phones.