Just what the future has in store for Palm remains up in the air following HP's $1.2 billion takeover, but one of the leading figures behind its webOS has jumped ship to take up asimilar role for Android

Matias Duarte, who previously held the position of VP of human interface and user experience at Palm, is largely attributed as being the driving force behind webOS and what's considered to be its stellar UI.

Indeed, it's his reputation that likely attracted Google's headhunters, as he's taken on the role of user experience director for Android.

Given that HP has admitted that it was webOS - and not Palm's smartphone business - that motivated its move for the company, its executives might not be very pleased.

Still, HP has already suggested it has little interest in attempting in directly taking on BlackBerry, iPhone, Android and the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 in the smartphone race, despite Palm itself having recently instigated a mini Pre and Pixi relaunch in the US.

Instead it's looking to use webOS for printers and other connected devices such as tablets.

[source: MobileCrunch]