One Man's Quest to Make Google's Gadgets Great

It's early in the morning on October 4, 2016, and in a few seconds, Rick Osterloh will present Google's latest gadget portfolio to the world. In April, CEO Sundar Pichai had tasked Osterloh with turning the software giant into a gadget maker that can compete with Apple. Osterloh has barely had enough time to sample all the snacks in the mini-kitchen, much less conceive of and ship a bunch of products. Yet here he is, tall and broad, clad in a gray short-sleeved Henley top, visibly nervous as he enters stage left and greets a roomful of reporters and analysts in a converted chocolate factory at the top of a San Francisco hill. It can't help Osterloh's nerves that minutes earlier, Pichai was out on the same stage making a grand case for the historical significance of this day.