Former Apple iAd chief Andy Miller to head Leap Motion
it was announced on Tuesday that advertising guru and former chief of Apple's iAd division Andy Miller will be taking on a new role as president as COO of 3D motion-control startup Leap Motion.
Miller, who co-founded mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless in 2006, came to Apple when he sold the company to Apple for $275 million in 2010. It was said that during his tenure at the iPhone maker, Miller answered directly to late co-founder Steve Jobs.
After leaving Apple in August 2011, Miller joined venture capital firm Highland Capital, the same company that helped fund Quattro five years earlier, as a general partner. The motion-control startup Leap Motion is a portfolio company of Highland, reports Fortune.
"Andy had been spending around 80 percent of his time on Leap over the past few months anyway, and he brought up the idea of going there fulltime," said Peter Bell, a general partner at Highland. "We talked about it a lot, and think it's the right move for Andy, the company and Highland. This is one of those companies that really feels different, and having Andy there makes us feel even better about it."
Leap is in the midst of developing a small motion-sensing peripheral that connects to any Mac or PC via USB to create 8 cubic feet of "3D interaction space" in front of the computer's monitor. The technology is four years in the making and the devices should be available late 2012 or early 2013.
Miller, who co-founded mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless in 2006, came to Apple when he sold the company to Apple for $275 million in 2010. It was said that during his tenure at the iPhone maker, Miller answered directly to late co-founder Steve Jobs.
After leaving Apple in August 2011, Miller joined venture capital firm Highland Capital, the same company that helped fund Quattro five years earlier, as a general partner. The motion-control startup Leap Motion is a portfolio company of Highland, reports Fortune.
"Andy had been spending around 80 percent of his time on Leap over the past few months anyway, and he brought up the idea of going there fulltime," said Peter Bell, a general partner at Highland. "We talked about it a lot, and think it's the right move for Andy, the company and Highland. This is one of those companies that really feels different, and having Andy there makes us feel even better about it."
Leap is in the midst of developing a small motion-sensing peripheral that connects to any Mac or PC via USB to create 8 cubic feet of "3D interaction space" in front of the computer's monitor. The technology is four years in the making and the devices should be available late 2012 or early 2013.
Comments
First move Andy will make; "Leap Motion announces today that it's incredible motion sensing peripheral currently only for Mac will soon be coming to Windows 8 and Google's Chromebook.". Two hours later, Apple will buy the company for a cool billion.
They do have an interesting tech, one that I think would be best suited to entertainment and possibly information kiosks.
Between this guy and the French guy who was in charge of Mac OS - both retire than join other companies…. Hmmm…. I wonder if the following might be true:
They propose to Apple some Ideas, and Apple says they are not interested, so these guys resign to pursue those Ideas… If Apple changes its mind about those ideas, they'll buy those Ideas/companies… But then, I can't think of any example of that, can you?
I recall Apple always saying how important it is to Say No to some ideas, in order to keep its focus...
The other possibility is that some of these guys and gals didn't get the promotion or pay increase they wanted, so they leave… Same might be true for Google, given yesterday's news of their top female exec becoming CEO of Yahoo…, while earlier another female exec left for Facebook! Of course, we all can only guess what the real story is in those situation…
The initial reaction I have to news of someone leaving Apple is usually not positive… But then I realize that they didn't leave for Apple's Direct Competitor either… And let's not forget that for every departure there are a bunch of newly hired future "stars" at Apple whose names we might here about years from now, if at all… Clearly, Apple has a "deep bench" as far as talent!!!
It's Amazing to see such a Huge Apple Machine moving forward, with all that talent focused on their work, while analysts and the rest of the world speculate about AAPL, market shares etc…, particularly on the eve of the each Quarter Earnings!!! How can one not respect that?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackbook
He'll be working for Apple again as soon as they acquire Leap...
My thoughts exactly lol
Hopefully Tony Fadell would return if Apple were to acquire Nest as well.
Was he heading up development of iAd or was he in charge of marketing the service?
Either way, it is a different skill set than developing motion control. Interesting turn of career for him.
THAT is a great tip; thank you sir. Will be nice to try this out for my MacMini that sits under the TV. Currently using VNC and Remote.ipa but this device might be better. And for the $ 70 I don't pay Customs Duty. The video on their homepage isn't working for me. Is it the same as this YouTube 6'14'' video?
No, it's their marketing vid:
There are a few tech demo videos in this thread that show the device in real-world situations:
http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/150240/a-future-without-a-keyboard-and-mouse