For Andy Rubin, Android Comes Calling Again

Andy Rubin, the father of Google's Android smartphone operating system, has recently talked about getting back in the Android phone business after more than two years away from it.

People in the mobile industry say Mr. Rubin has tried to recruit personnel to help build a new phone company, likely through Playground Fund, his vehicle for investing in startups. Playground has raised about $300 million.

The Takeaway

Andy Rubin has been trying to start an Android phone company that would take advantage of industry trends, which have made easier to produce and launch new brands in recent years.

It’s not clear whether he would have a direct operating role in the new company or whether he would be involved primarily as a backer.

Mr. Rubin has backed a number of startups since leaving Google a year ago, including one related to augmented reality and one that monitors people's swimming pools. He's also trying to invest in the next computing platforms and artificial intelligence. Mr. Rubin is also a partner at Redpoint Ventures.

But he isn't ignoring smartphones because they're going to be people's main screen for years to come, he has said publicly.

It's unclear how Mr. Rubin's proposed phone company would stand out. However, the Android part of the smartphone world has undergone huge changes that have made it much easier to launch a company that can sell high-quality devices directly to consumers, particularly in the U.S. (For more on those trends and their implications, see this, this and this.)

In the meantime, Google has grown increasingly concerned over Apple’s lock on the high end of the smartphone market and is taking steps to change that.

The Android part of the smartphone world has undergone huge changes that have made it much easier to launch a company that can sell high-quality devices directly to consumers.

It's possible that there will be a connection between Mr. Rubin’s potential phone startup and other hardware projects he is funding and working on; in other words, making sure that a phone will work in concert with a group of devices in ways they cannot do now.

Mr. Rubin didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. He left Google last year after overseeing the company’s purchase of numerous robotics startups, with the dream of building devices to help people accomplish daily tasks. That unit, known as "Replicant," is effectively becoming its own company within Alphabet, the new corporate structure started by Google CEO Larry Page.

Mr. Rubin left the Android team in similarly surprising circumstances, in 2013. He ceded the Android territory to Sundar Pichai, who eventually became CEO, even though Android soundly defeated the Chrome operating system, which Mr. Pichai ran, in terms of adoption. For more on that and Mr. Rubin's history and strengths, see this article.

Amir Efrati is executive editor at The Information, which he helped to launch in 2013. Previously he spent nine years as a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, reporting on white-collar crime and later about technology. He can be reached at [email protected] and is on X @amir