Google Blockbuster: Former Android Chief Andy Rubin Leaving After Nine Years
Andy Rubin, the Google executive who co-founded the Android mobile operating system, is leaving the company, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday.
Rubin joined Google in 2005 when the search firm acquired his startup, Android, for around $50 million. His next move will be to launch an incubator for technology hardware startups, according to The Wall Street Journal report.
A Google spokesperson confirmed the report and offered the following statement from Google CEO Larry Page:
’I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next. With Android he created something truly remarkable—with a billion plus happy users. Thank you," Page said in the statement.
Rubin was senior vice president of Google's mobile business until March 2013, when he stepped down to focus on special projects and was replaced by Sundar Pichai, head of Chrome and Google Apps.
In December of that year, Rubin was appointed to lead Google's robotics division, a position he has held until now.
Rubin also founded Danger, a mobile startup that developed the Sidekick mobile device, in 1999. Rubin left in 2003 to co-found Android.
Microsoft acquired Danger in 2008 for $500 million, eventually spinning its technology into its Kin line of smartphones, which were discontinued in 2010 after less than three months on the market.
Android dominates the global smartphone market with an 84.7 percent share of the market during the second calendar quarter of 2014, compared to 11.7 percent for Apple iOS, according to figures from IDC.
PUBLISHED OCT. 30, 2014