That laboratory, as you might know, is Amazon's formerly secret hardware facility, which was originally formed to create the Kindle e-readers. It eventually spawned not just the Echo speakers, but also the company's other devices, such as the Dash buttons, Fire tablets, TV and even the late Fire phone. The last one turned out to be a huge flop -- Amazon kept slashing its prices for a year in an effort to move stocks before killing the product altogether. Due to its failure, the company decided to shelve its sequel and several other projects in the pipeline.

Before Amazon, Foster worked on hardware for Microsoft, helping create the Zune HD. He was also with Apple for five years, developing hardware components for its devices. It's not clear what role he played in creating the Pixel phones Google is expected to reveal tomorrow. But the company's future devices will have his fingerprints all over them.