Google has hired a 14-year Apple veteran to work on its upcoming Fuchsia OS. The company has been working on the new OS for a while now, and it has been a talking point throughout last year.

Google is still nowhere near releasing actual products powered by Fuchsia, but it’s now hired Bill Stevenson, a software engineer who has worked on some of Apple’s popular products like Mac, OS X, AirPlay, iCloud, etc. Most recently, he was responsible for Mac and Windows program management at Apple, leading teams for the release and technical management for macOS and Apple’s Windows software, reports 9to5Google.

He was also responsible for the development schedule, beta releases, risk management and launch logistics for the recent major macOS releases, including Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave.

On LinkedIn, Stevenson announced that he is joining Google to work on Fuchsia and help bring it to market. “I’m excited to share that this February I will be joining Google to help bring a new operating system called Fuchsia to market. Stay tuned!”, Stevenson said.

Stevenson’s appointment could be an indicator of Google thinking about the product side of things for Fuchsia. The company has been focused on the technical side of the new OS for a while, and it’s probably going to start looking into release, launch, and marketing plans for Fuchsia. That obviously doesn’t mean we will see a real product powered by Fuchsia this year, so don’t get your hopes up — yet.

Tagged with Apple, Fuchsia, Google, macOS