Mr Android’s new venture
Operating system pioneer makes his own move into the phone market
Just over two years after leaving Google, Andy Rubin is preparing to take on the smartphone industry he helped create. Rubin, creator of the Android operating system, is planning to marry his background in software with artificial intelligence in a risky business: consumer hardware. Armed with a team of about 40 people, filled with recruits from Apple and Google, Rubin is preparing to announce a new company called Essential and serve as its chief executive, according to people familiar with the matter.
A platform company designed to tie multiple devices together, Essential is working on a suite of consumer hardware products, including ones for the mobile and smart home markets, aa source said.
The centrepiece of the system is a high-end smartphone with a large edge-to-edge screen. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this month, Rubin is said to have discussed the smartphone with mobile carrier executives.
Rubin registered Essential Products with California regulators in November 2015. Late last year, the company registered “Essential” with the US Patent and Trademark Office, listing smartphones, tablets, accessories and “computer operating software for mobile phones” among its goods and services. It’s unclear whether the devices will run on software based on Android.
Though still in the prototyping stage, Rubin’s phone is aimed at the top of the market where Apple’s iPhone and Alphabet’s new Pixel reside. It is expected to include highend materials and the ability to gain new hardware features over time. Representatives for Rubin declined to comment.
Rubin sold Android to Google in 2005. He spent eight years at its helm at Google, turning the operating sys- tem from a tiny project into the globe’s most dominant software for running mobile devices. In 2013, he stepped down from Android to form Google’s robotics unit before leaving altogether in 2014.
Rubin’s next venture was a startup incubator called Playground Global, which backs artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and augmented reality projects.
Rubin is convinced AI is the next big change to ripple through the technology industry. “New computing platforms happen every 10 to 12 years,” he said at the Bloomberg Technology Conference in June. “What’s the next platform? . . . It’s about data and people training AI systems to learn.”
Playground Global, which occupies a sprawling warehouse in Silicon Valley, has raised at least US$300 million ($422m) from big investors including Hewlett-Packard, Google, and Apple supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry. The latter, known as Foxconn, is in talks to manufacture Rubin’s new smartphone, according to people familiar with the matter.
At least one prototype of Rubin’s phone boasts a screen larger than the iPhone 7 Plus but has a smaller overall footprint, according to a source. The startup is said to be experimenting with enabling the phone’s screen to sense different levels of pressure, similar to an iPhone
Essential’s engineers are belived to be developing a proprietary connector that serves double duty for charging the battery and expanding the phone’s functionality over time.
The magnetic connector would allow Essential or even third parties to create hardware accessories that add features to the smartphone. For instance, Rubin’s engineers are working on a sphere-shaped camera add-on that shoots high-resolution 360 degree photographs, the source said. .
Another source said Rubin was aiming to put the phone on sale around the middle of this year for a price close to that of an iPhone 7 (US$649), but that all of the plans were still in flux. Technology news website The Information has earlier reported that Rubin was working on a phone.
A source close to the startup said Rubin’s former Google colleagues and Apple managers, including Rebecca Zavin, Joe Tate, Linda Jiang, and Jason Keats were helping with the project. Zavin, a former senior Google software manager, is said to be running software for Rubin. Keats and Tate helping run hardware engineering, and Jiang is a key designer for Essential.
Kelly Liang, a former business executive with the Google X lab, is managing business development and Brian Wallace, a former Samsung and Magic Leap executive, is leading marketing. —