Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) lost another key member of its talented webOS development team. AllThingsD reported that Matias Duarte, senior director of human interface and user experience at Palm, has left the company. Duarte will join Google, where he will be user experience director of the company's Android platform.
Duarte's departure follows that of another key Palm executive. On April 23, Palm Senior Vice President of Software and Services Michael Abbott left the device manufacturer to join microblogging service Twitter in the role of vice president of engineering. Abbott was credited with heading up the application platform and services development for webOS.
The departure of these two key executives could be a significant loss for Palm and its new owner Hewlett-Packard. HP, which announced in late April plans to purchase Palm for $1.2 billion, has said it plans to leverage its distribution channels and financial strength to help expand the webOS platform. In addition, HP executives said they expect to take webOS beyond smartphones, possibly to tablets and netbooks for both consumers and enterprise users.
For more:
- see this AllThingsD report
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