Andy Rubin is reportedly planning to launch his own Android phone company

 

 Andy Rubin and colleagues founded Android as startup in 2003, but it was acquired by Google in 2005 and eventually grew to dominate the smartphone market. Rubin headed Android, then moved on to other projects in Google in 2013. He ended up leaving the company last year. Now, The Information 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 called Playground Fund, which has raised more than $300 million in capital. He’s invested in artificial intelligence and augmented reality, but the allure of Android is hard to ignore. Sources tell The Information that Rubin has been putting together a team 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-end Android phones that find success are usually quite far removed from Google’s influence. For example, Samsung’s Galaxy S series devices are top 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 (about $200 cheaper than the iPhone), so that’s at least a step in the right direction.

It stands to reason that Andy Rubin still has close ties with Google and members of the Android team. When he stepped aside from running Android, he was replaced by Sundar Pichai, who is now CEO of the reorganized Google. Rubin knows what it takes to make a good Android device, so a cooperation between he and Google could produce some interesting results. We might finally have an OEM that can build Nexus-like devices as a sustainable business. You could argue Motorola has been trying to do that, but it has been losing money and there’s no telling how Lenovo will manage the company going forward.
Even with his familiarity with Android, it’s going to be hard to break into the smartphone market now. Look at the struggles OnePlus has had with fulfillment, supply chain, 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 can crank out great hardware inexpensively.
This supposed Rubin Android startup will need to have an angle, and thus far it’s not clear what that would be. Perhaps it will have something to do with Google’s proposed hardware component designs.