The man who was responsible for the development of the Mac OS X is reportedly building a new cloud OS startup called Upthere, a new report reveals.

According to a Business Insider report, evidence points to Bertrand Serlet, former Apple vice president of Mac Software Engineering, is building a cloud OS startup in Palo Alto, California with fellow former Apple employees.

A series of tweets, job postings, trademark filings and tips paint a picture that Serlet is building the startup, which could later compete with cloud offerings from other companies like Apple, with Roger Bodamer, former Apple VP of Production Operations Development.

Roger Bodamer is a veteran in the tech industry. An expert in database architectures, he owns several patents for database and middleware technology. For 12 years, he worked on the Database and Application Server development arm of Oracle.

Business Insider says that they first came across the company Serlet is building while looking through the LinkedIn profile of Justin Maxwell who was previously a user interface designer at Apple.

In his profile, Maxwell listed working for Upthere. In a tweet, he said:

front-end engineers: come leave your job and work with me, @perezd, @bserlet, @rogerb, and other smart folks here in palo alto.

— Justin Maxwell (@303) May 18, 2012

The two, along with other people, have founded Upthere Inc.

After SocialBarrel did a basic search on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site, we found that Upthere Inc. has three active applications for trademarks.

One is for a “UPTHERE” [Serial Number: 85430533], another for “UPLET” [SN: 85617223], and another for “FOLDER IN THE SKY” [SN: 85617193]. The first application was filed on September 23 of last year while the next two ones were filed just this May 4.

Bertrand Serlet

Meanwhile, one of the job postings from Upthere says: “Our founders were key to building the world’s leading operating system (Mac OS X) and database (Oracle) and have a clear vision of core technology for a Cloud OS.” [Emphasis ours.]

Apple announced Serlet’s departure from the company in March of last year. They said then that:

“Serlet joined Apple in 1997, and has been involved in the definition, development and creation of Mac OS X, the world’s most advanced operating system. Before joining Apple, Serlet spent four years at Xerox PARC, then joined NeXT in 1989. Serlet holds a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Orsay, France.”

In the announcement, Serlet was quoted as saying, “I’ve worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science.”

It remains to be seen what cloud product would be launched by Serlet’s Upthere Inc.

Image from anargybo on Flickr (CC)

About Solon Harmony Dolor

A passion for technology and journalism makes this upcoming writer very interested in social media and technology news. Fresh from finishing an English and Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, he aims to bring interesting news to our readers .