Richard DeVaul — an MIT PhD and Apple’s Senior Prototype Scientist working under Jonny Ives — has left Apple for Google. In him, Apple has lost one of their top, super secret skunkwork guys… one of the few in Cupertino tasked with building out hardware concepts for the next big thing.
DeVaul is a specialist in wearable technologies, which he has worked on for most of the last decade. Seith Weintraub has a great write-up of his career to date.
Although it’s not clear what DeVaul was working on within Apple, it seems likely that Google has recruited DeVaul for their new lab called Google Hardware. There his job description will be the “rapid idea evaluation and prototyping for new projects.”
If DeVaul’s interests still mostly reside in wearable technologies, Google might be a better fit: the search giant is often willing to play around with concepts (like wearable computers) that might not have immediate consumer applications, where as Apple’s interest in wearable technology pretty much ends at Nike Plus and the iPod Nano.
To us, though, this seems like something of a step-down, although it’s possible that Google’s engineer-friendly environment is a better match for a nuts-and-bolts MIT man than Apple’s humanities-led campus. Either way, best of luck, Richard1
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
24 responses to “Apple Loses Top Secret Skunkworks Scientist To Google”
Can’t believe a MAC site is getting this wrong, but it’s Jony Ive, not Jonny Ives.
Apple sure is bleeding a lot of talent lately. Especially for a company that has held its top ranks pretty tightly for many years.
how exactly is Google a step down? oh right. it’s not. you’re just ridiculous fan boys who think anything other than apple is insufficient…
Who cares? Google’s in a death spiral. Stock’s down almost 30%.
And here’s a list of immediate risk:
If Oracle wins, Google will owe them $6 Billion plus licensing fees.
If Microsoft wins against Motorola, Motorola’s gone.
If Apple wins against HTC and/or Motorola, or Samsung, then either one is dead- and Apple just got a huge patent approval this week.
The Gov’t now wants to open an anti-competitive investigation against Google.
Now, does anyone really think all these factors will play in Google’s favor?
not a Google fan, but all that sound like spec.
how did you get fanboy out of what he said?
I’m surprised he didn’t have a non-compete clause in his contract with Apple. Some people think of it as a nincompoop clause. But then again the guy has a Ph.D. from MIT so maybe that’s why he avoided having to sign such a thing.
I would be most surprised if he is not restricted by a non-compete clause. However, the law does not permit over-arching conditions to be imposed such that the individual cannot earn a living elsewhere. I would surmise he can work at Google but not on projects with which was involved at Apple and about which he possesses company secrets, for a reasonable period. Possibly a year. This is standard practice. One relies to an extent on personal ethics to make this system work and it’s unlikely this individual will be lacking in same, given the high position to which he rose at Apple. Charlatans and chancers get found out early in their careers.
It is also common practice in Silicon Valley for individuals to move from company to company. It’s one of the characteristics that makes the place so vibrant. It doesn’t reflect on Apple in the slightest. And so long as he doesn’t abuse the confidence the company placed in him, he would, I assume, be welcomed back in the future if circumstances changed.
So what your saying is Apple thinks short term, where Google thinks long term?
Perhaps they should start letting engineers have their say when it comes to product development.
At Google, any engineer with good ideas can create their own pet project. Its actually encouraged by top management.
Some of the latest innovations from Google were due to these off the side “pet projects”. Google Voice being one of them.
Actually Google Voice is a product of a company (Grand Central) bought out by Google. I am still using the same Google voice number I had as a Grand Central member.
Sounds so good, keep it up!