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andy-rubin

Andy Rubin and colleagues founded Android equally startup in 2003, but it was acquired past Google in 2005 and eventually grew to dominate the smartphone marketplace. Rubin headed Android, then moved on to other projects in Google in 2022. He ended up leaving the visitor terminal year. Now, The Data reports that Rubin is looking to get involved with Android again, but on the hardware side rather than software.

Since leaving Google, Andy Rubin has created a startup incubator chosen Playground Fund, which has raised more than $300 million in capital. He's invested in bogus intelligence and augmented reality, but the allure of Android is hard to ignore. Sources tell The Information that Rubin has been putting together a squad to launch a new smartphone company that would make Android devices.

Google has reportedly been concerned recently about the dominance of Apple in the premium smartphone market. The few high-terminate Android phones that find success are unremarkably quite far removed from Google's influence. For example, Samsung's Milky way S series devices are elevation sellers with their heavily customized build of Android and exclusive services. Google's Nexus 6P has been widely praised for its overall quality and reasonable price (virtually $200 cheaper than the iPhone), and so that'due south at least a pace in the correct direction.

GS6-1

It stands to reason that Andy Rubin still has shut ties with Google and members of the Android squad. When he stepped aside from running Android, he was replaced by Sundar Pichai, who is at present CEO of the reorganized Google. Rubin knows what it takes to make a skillful Android device, so a cooperation between he and Google could produce some interesting results. We might finally have an OEM that can build Nexus-similar devices equally a sustainable business. You could argue Motorola has been trying to practice that, but it has been losing money and at that place'southward no telling how Lenovo will manage the company going forward.

Even with his familiarity with Android, it'due south going to be hard to interruption into the smartphone market now. Wait at the struggles OnePlus has had with fulfillment, supply concatenation, and customer support. Every niche is saturated, and even established companies are having trouble staying competitive. HTC, once the leading Android OEM, is bleeding cash and losing ground to competitors like Samsung. Meanwhile, the budget phone space is getting incredibly competitive with Chinese OEMs like Huawei and Xiaomi, both of which tin can crank out neat hardware inexpensively.

This supposed Rubin Android startup will need to have an angle, and thus far information technology's not articulate what that would be. Possibly it will have something to do with Google'south proposed hardware component designs.