Tech fans are probably well aware that Google wants to replace Android and Chrome with a unified operating system that would work just as well on smartphones, tablets as it would on laptops. Fuchsia, as it’s being referred to for the time being, will also work on other smart gadgets, such as smart speakers — in fact, a report said that Google will first use Fuchsia on speakers before bringing it to smartphones.
But even though Fuchsia has been in the news for quite a while now, Google has not acknowledged its existence (although it hasn’t tried to prevent leaks either), and now we have a new development in the Fuchsia story. Google has hired a former macOS veteran from Apple to help it bring Fuchsia to market.
Bill Stevenson is the engineer in question, who worked for Apple for 14 years. He’ll join Google in February, according to a LinkedIn post seen by 9to5Google. “I’m excited to share that this February I will be joining Google to help bring a new operating system called Fuchsia to market,” he said.
Google, a report said last summer, will need some three more years to launch the first Fuchsia-based smart speakers, and two additional years on top of that for smartphones and laptops.
Google is already paving the way for replacing Android in the long run. The company last month released the first stable version of Flutter — a new coding kit for developers that lets them build apps for iOS, Android, and Fuchsia. Furthermore, recent revelations proved that Android apps would run on Fuchsia. In other words, Google envisions the transition from Android to a more sophisticated operating system as a seamless process.
As for Stevenson, 9to5Google explains that he started at Apple in 2004 as a Product Release Engineer for OS X. He rose through the ranks to become a Senior Engineering Program Manager in 2008. Then four years later, he became a Senior Manager for Mac/Windows Program Management.
While at Apple, the engineer had a role in every OS release from Lion through Mojave, overseeing, among other things AirPlay, Find My Mac, iCloud for Mac, and AirDrop. He also worked with third-party developers and other software and hardware teams at Apple. It certainly seems like Stevenson has what it takes to help Google build out Fuchsia with a focus on laptops and desktops, as well as new hardware that will run Fuchsia out of the box.
