Hiroshi Lockheimer (born 1975) is a Japanese-American software engineer and business executive. He is one of the founding members of the Android team at Google, which was created after Google acquired the mobile operating system.[2] At Google, Lockheimer was the senior vice president of Android, Chrome, ChromeOS & Play, overseeing the company's range of mobile products, until a corporate reorganization in April 2024.[3]
Hiroshi Lockheimer | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1975 (age 48–49)[1] Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation(s) | Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome, ChromeOS & Play at Google |
| Website | Twitter profile |
Early life
editLockheimer was born in 1975 and grew up in Tokyo, he is the son of a Japanese mother and German father. He lived in Japan until the age of 18. In 1993, Lockheimer moved to the United States to enter Rice University in Houston, Texas. Lockheimer didn't enjoy his time in Texas and dropped out to move back to Tokyo to study programming. Lockheimer returned to the United States in 1997, and three years later became the first employee of Andy Rubin's start-up, called Danger Inc.[1][4][5]
Lockheimer was approached by Andy Rubin after Android got acquired by Google. In 2015, Lockheimer described his interaction with Rubin to Fast Company:
He knew my interest in consumer devices, and specifically wireless devices. He called me up and said, ‘Hey, you know, we’re doing this thing at Google now, we got acquired. I can’t really tell you what we’re doing, but I think you’re really going to be excited about it. You should come talk to us'.[6]
Lockheimer joined Google's Android team in April 2006, 19 months before the public unveiling of Android 1.0. Lockheimer initially started as Android's executive director, and was promoted to vice president of engineering in 2011. From October 2015 to April 2024, Lockheimer was Google's senior vice president of Android, Chrome, ChromeOS & Play.[1][3]
Career
edit- Be, Inc., manager, 1997–2000
- Danger, Inc., first employee, 2000–2000.
- Palm, Inc., program manager, 2000–2001.
- Good Technology, engineering manager, 2001–2004.
- Microsoft IPTV, platform manager, 2005–2006.
- Google, executive director, 2006–2011.
- Google, vice president of engineering, 2011–2015.
- Google, senior vice president of Android, Chrome, ChromeOS & Play, 2015–present.
References
edit- ^ a b c "Google's Android has too many flavors and Apple isn't the only one who thinks so". CNET. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
- ^ Elgin, Ben (August 17, 2005). "Google Buys Android for Its Mobile Arsenal". Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg. Archived from the original on February 5, 2011. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
- ^ a b Pierce, David (2024-04-18). "Google is combining its Android and hardware teams — and it's all about AI". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-06-14.
- ^ "Unknown Android". Live Typing. 30 March 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-08-22. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
- ^ "Hiroshi Lockheimer LinkedIn profile". LinkedIn. Retrieved 4 October 2017.[self-published source]
- ^ "Google's Hiroshi Lockheimer On The Present And Future Of Android And Chrome OS". Fast Company. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2017.