Google serious about its own iPhone, hires Apple engineers

Tech company Google, is seriously thinking of developing its own iPhone and to this end, the platform has reportedly hired the services of Apple engineers to build its mobile processors.

Reports say Google is also designing its own system on a chip (SoC) for future mobile devices, and word has it that the lead architect for that project is a man named Manu Gulati, who, until very recently, had been a senior engineer at Apple.

Both of these are massive developments, showing that Google won’t be content until it has maximum control over every aspect of its smartphone — exactly the same goal that Apple pursues with every new generation of iPhone — and furthermore underlining the level of ambition by poaching someone who would surely have needed a lot of incentive to leave a job at Apple.

The SoC is the processing heart that powers the vast majority of functions of any modern smartphone, tablet, or smart speaker. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon is the most famous and widely used example; Samsung’s Exynos is a comparable competitor, and Apple’s A series of SoCs are the current gold standard, delivering performance and efficiency.

If Google is determined to not be dependent on another company’s whims or fortunes, having its own SoC is an essential part of its future business as a mobile hardware vendor.