Andy Rubin leaves Google's Android team for 'new chapter' at same company

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Google Android chief Andy Rubin is leaving his position, the company announced on Wednesday, to take on an undefined "new chapter" at the company.

Rubin


The announcement was made by Google Chief Executive Larry Page in a post to the company's official blog. In it, Page recalled when he and company co-founder Sergey Brin first met Rubin back in 2004.

"He believed that aligning standards around an open-source operating system would drive innovation across the mobile industry," Page said. "Most people thought he was nuts. But his insight immediately struck a chord because at the time it was extremely painful developing services for mobile devices."

The CEO praised Rubin for having "exceeded" the "crazy ambitious goals" Google had for Android. According to Page, Rubin simply "decided it's time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google."

Taking his place will be Sundar Pichai, who has previously worked on the Chrome browser and Apps teams at Google.The pace of innovation has never been greater, and Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world." - Google CEO Larry Page

"The pace of innovation has never been greater, and Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world: we have a global partnership of over 60 manufacturers; more than 750 million devices have been activated globally; and 25 billion apps have now been downloaded from Google Play," Rubin said.

The executive shakeup comes less than six months after Apple had its own major change for its mobile operating system, iOS. Scott Forstall, who previously served as Apple's iOS chief, was forced out at the company last October.

Before Rubin joined Google, he worked at Apple from 1989 to 1992. He then moved on to General Magic, then Danger, which made the Sidekick handset, before starting Android, Inc. He joined Google when the search giant acquired Android in 2005.

Google's Android and Apple's iOS are the two dominant platforms in the modern smartphone space.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 52
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member

    "He believed that aligning standards around an open-source operating system would drive innovation across the mobile industry," Page said. "Most people thought he was nuts. But his insight immediately struck a chord because at the time it was extremely painful developing services for mobile devices."

    It also helped that Apple innovated to market first.
  • Reply 2 of 52
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jungmark View Post





    It also helped that Apple innovated to market first.


     


    And Sun/Oracle.

  • Reply 3 of 52
    umrk_labumrk_lab Posts: 550member


    Too bad General Magic was not a success ...

  • Reply 4 of 52
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Nice trick mentioning Forstall as if that has anything to do with this. But it does give you an 'apple connection' to justify posting this obvious attempt at hit whoring.
  • Reply 5 of 52


    So did Sundar Pichai previously work as an engineer at Apple too? Is he going to be "borrowing" some Apple IP he picked up from his time there?

  • Reply 6 of 52
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    New position: Thief in Chief
  • Reply 7 of 52
    dmarcootdmarcoot Posts: 191member


    Am I the only person who cant stand his face? This photo in particular. He always looks like a smug jerk

  • Reply 8 of 52
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Robin Huber View Post



    New position: Thief in Chief


    What did he steal?

  • Reply 9 of 52
    monstrositymonstrosity Posts: 2,234member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    What did he steal?



    Google's entire business revolves around 'stolen' IP.

  • Reply 10 of 52
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member


    Notice they did not say how much any of their developers have made from their entire open source experiment and the 25B downloads. They maybe sending him over to the Motorola side thinking he can fix their problems...

  • Reply 11 of 52
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    "Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world"

    Did they just say 'most used'?

    Who's using it? And where?

    Because hard data doesn't support that.
  • Reply 12 of 52
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by monstrosity View Post




    Google's entire business revolves around 'stolen' IP.



    Really? I did not know that. So just because Jerry Yang invented the search engine, no one else is allowed to release a different search engine?

  • Reply 13 of 52
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    I wonder what Google thinks that exactly ONE company is having real success on the Android platform, cannibalizing everything else, and that's Samsung.

    "He believed that aligning standards around an open-source operating system would drive innovation across the mobile industry,"

    What "innovation" has Android driven from anyone else? Shitty skins by OEMs? These companies all use Android because it's a shitload cheaper than developing and maintaining their own OS. That's it.
  • Reply 14 of 52
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
  • Reply 15 of 52


    Google may be getting ready to pull the plug on Android.


     


    Stop further development of Android. Why let Samsung make most of the profits?  Milk as much revenue from the Android installed base as possible. 


     


    Develop a Chrome OS for the smartphones to be sold exclusively by Motorola.


     


    Google/Samsung split is coming.

  • Reply 16 of 52
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member


    Yup, that's probably it.

  • Reply 17 of 52
    majjomajjo Posts: 574member
    charlituna wrote: »
    Nice trick mentioning Forstall as if that has anything to do with this. But it does give you an 'apple connection' to justify posting this obvious attempt at hit whoring.

    Well, consider Rubin is the head of android, that would make his position the Google equivalent of Forstall's would it not?

    I kind've wished Duarte took over as he is the Google equivalent of ive. I really liked the design direction android has taken since he came on board. Though, like ive, its probably best to keep him on design.
  • Reply 18 of 52
    mars123mars123 Posts: 26member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by GTR View Post



    "Thief, Rubins! We hates it forever!!!"



    At least he didn't get KICKED out like Forstall. 

  • Reply 19 of 52
    mars123mars123 Posts: 26member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by monstrosity View Post


    Google's entire business revolves around 'stolen' IP.



    Sounds like a crybaby whining and moaning because Apple isn't winning. Calling the competitor names without any fact to back it up is very childish. 

  • Reply 20 of 52
    hftshfts Posts: 386member
    dmarcoot wrote: »
    Am I the only person who cant stand his face? This photo in particular. He always looks like a smug jerk
    Exactly what I was about to mention. That smug and smirk, wants me to give him a sandwich, one full of a fist that is.
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