San Francisco - 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 about a 40-person team, filled
with recruits from Apple and Alphabet’s Google, Rubin is preparing to announce
a new company called Essential and serve as its CEO, 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, one of the people
said.
The centerpiece of the system is a high-end smartphone
with a large edge-to-edge screen that lacks a surrounding bezel. At the
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January, Rubin
discussed the smartphone with mobile carrier executives, including some
from Sprint Corp., people familiar with the talks said.
Rubin registered Essential Products Inc. with California regulators
in November 2015. In late 2016, 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 if the devices will run on software based
on Android.
While 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's expected to include high-end materials and the ability to gain new
hardware features over time, the people said. Representatives for Rubin
and Sprint declined to comment.
Read also: How smart is Google's new digital assistant?
Rubin sold Android to Google in 2005. He spent eight
years at its helm at Google, turning the operating system 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, 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."
Talks
Playground Global, which occupies a sprawling
warehouse in Silicon Valley, has raised at least $300 million 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's (5.5-inches) but has a smaller overall
footprint because of the lack of bezels, one of the people said. The
startup is experimenting with enabling the phone's screen to sense different
levels of pressure, similar to an iPhone, the person said. Rubin's team is
testing an industrial design with metal edges and a back made of ceramic, which
is more difficult to manufacture than typical smartphone materials, two of the
people said.
Essential's engineers are developing a proprietary
connector that serves double duty for charging the battery and expanding the
phone's functionality over time, one person familiar with the planning said.
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 person said.
Read also: PICS: Google targets Apple with Pixel phone
Rubin is aiming to put the phone on sale around the
middle of this year for a price close to that of an iPhone 7 ($649), a person
familiar with the matter said, adding that all of the plans are still in flux.
Technology news website The Information earlier reported Rubin was working on a
phone.
Helping run the project are former Google colleagues
and Apple managers, including Rebecca Zavin, Joe Tate, Linda Jiang, and Jason
Keats. Zavin, a former senior Google software manager, is running software for
Rubin. Keats and Tate are helping run hardware engineering, and Jiang is a key
designer for Essential, according to a person familiar with the startup. 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.
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