
Google has moved to secure
product-design capabilities for its research X Lab by acquiring Gecko Design to focus on hardware projects. The news, announced late Friday on Gecko's Web site, adds design talent. Terms of the deal
were not disclosed.
Gecko starts with developing consumer electronics, working with engineers early in the process -- but extends through supply chain management, which means moving the raw
materials into manufacturing, to finished goods. The company is based in Los Gatos, Calif.
Gecko, founded by Jacques Gagne in 1996, focuses on consumer product development, working with
industrial design firms like Fuseproject, frogdesign, and Newdeal Design. Clients like FitBit, a hardware design company that automatically monitors fitness and sleep; Hewlett-Packard home and
business, Logitech, and Slingmedia. The company's engineers also worked with Warner Bros on touchscreen monitor components in the futuristic product placement for Dell computers in Spielberg's
production of "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" in 2000.
The company's "intimate" familiarity of design for prototype and
manufacturing puts Google in an interesting position when it comes to hardware, testing and manufacturing. Google will need supply chain
expertise to procure raw materials and a manufacturing faculty or contract with manufacturers like Solectron and Celestica once it begins to build, test and produce hardware.
The knowledge and
expertise in engineering will help the company expand all its hardware ventures, from satellites to Google Glass to self-driving cars and beyond. With Gecko now under its wing, Google also could
explore semiconductor manufacturing.