Android Head Andy Rubin Departs from Company After 10 Years
posted Sunday Mar 17, 2013 by Nicholas DiMeo
It seems like every major mobile player is shifting gears, or at least shifting in leadership. Microsoft has recently ended ties with former President of Windows, Stephen Sinofsky and Apple has also let Scott Forstall walk away from the company after the whole Maps disaster. Now, Google is looking in a new direction as well.
Google, amidst being the most vulnerable operating system and going through ongoing antitrust hearings, has chosen to replace Andy Rubin, the head of Android. Chrome's leader, Sundar Pichai will take his place while also handling his current obligations, like, I don't know, removing the 400 vulnerabilities from his browser and trying to explain why a Chromebook and an Android tablet are different.
To the majority of the tech space, this move looks to be quite a surprise, as things appeared to be all roses with Android. The Galaxy S IV has been announced, and Android couldn't be a more popular and successful OS if you asked most people. However, to us here at this publication, this shift only further proves why jumping off the Android ship now might not be such a bad idea. Nobody has said who left who in the Google camp just yet, but my guess is that Rubin may have seen the writing on the wall, at least on the larger scale. Google has been on a slippery slope into a lot of trouble for quite some time, and maybe Rubin departed before his value dropped along with a stack of new lawsuits.
Larry Page had a few words to say about Andy Rubin in a blog post.
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. We had a closet full of more than 100 phones and were building our software pretty much device by device. It was nearly impossible for us to make truly great mobile experiences.
Rubin was with Android as a co-founder back in 2003, making this his tenth year that he would have run the entire operation. With now over 750 million smartphones and tablets running Android, plus 25 billion apps downloaded off of Google Play, it's quite an accomplishment, given where he started with the company. What do you think happened to have Rubin step to the side and let someone else take his position in the mobile space? We want your thoughts in the comments below.
