Bloomberg has learned that Mike and Maaike, the firm that helped design the first Android smartphone, the T-Mobile G1, has been acquired by Google. The move comes just as Google closed its Motorola acquisition, suggesting a deeper focus on hardware design in the future. Motorola’s new CEO, Dennis Woodside, added: “Google has always been interested in hardware. The natural next step is for us to get even more serious and to really go for it.”
Aside from the G1, Mike and Maaike also worked with Google on an earlier prototype. This device, sporting a QWERTY keyboard, was used by Google employees and software developers as a “testbed device for the Android operating system. Its other customers include Belkin and Microsoft.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Read more: Bloomberg