Previously, we gave you an intro on the stellar career history of the man behind the Android. Today, we'll give you bits and pieces of what makes the guy who dreamed about a world-changing mobile device platform from the Cayman Islands, tick.
How about robots and tech?
Not so surprising, given his career history, and even what the Android stands for.
But here are a few tidbits about how deeply geeky Andy Rubin is:
- His home is equipped with a biometric retinal scanner for the residents and a robotic arm that strikes a gong, as a doorbell. Andy claims the retinal scanner "Makes it easier to deal with former girlfriends."
- Rubin's fascination with tech started early: his father was in the direct marketing business, and part of his dad's marketing strategy was to offer electronic devices with credit card bills. Because of that, the young Andy Rubin got the latest and greatest devices of his time.
- Andy Rubin always seemed way ahead of his time. In his stint with MSN TV (between 1997 to 1999), he created a robot equipped with a webcam and a microphone and let it loose to move around Microsoft. Hackers managed to break into the robot, but hadn't realized that it was a mobile device with the capacity to record video. While the hackers didn't realize the potential havoc they could have wreaked and the breach to data security was minimal, Andy Rubin was ordered to sequester the robot where it won't do much damage.
- Such was his fascination of robots that Danger, Inc., the company he founded, was actually named after the Sci-Fi TV Show "Lost In Space" robot who would usually warn the cast by sounding "Danger, Danger!"
- Two major life-changing events happened to Andy Rubin in the Cayman Islands: the first was when he played Good Samaritan to love-embattled Apple Inc. engineer Bill Caswell. When Caswell was kicked out of the beach cottage he shared with his girlfriend thanks to a fight, Andy Rubin gave him a place to stay. In exchange, Bill Caswell gave him a job at Apple. His job at Apple Inc. eventually led him to join a team of engineers who were hell-bent on creating a platform for the next-generation smartphone. It was a brilliant idea, and the software was amazingly advanced for its time. The big catch, however, was exactly that: the platform was too advanced for its time, the big companies weren't interested. The second defining moment in the Cayman Islands is what led him to where he is, today. After he left Danger Inc. as CEO, he retreated back there and started writing code for software and developing a digital camera. But the camera had no takers, so he went back to an old idea of creating a next-generation mobile device platform. This time, after some twist of fate, it clicked. The Android was born, from the shores of the Cayman Islands and brought back to the heart of Silicon Valley.
These are the things that make up the man named Andy Rubin. Good to see that a quintessential tech guy has some quirky, even endearing, spots as well.
Resource:
The New York Times -- I, Robot: The Man Behind the Google Phone
When the word "Android" is mentioned, all sorts of beautiful phones would probably pop up in your mind. Nowhere in your imagination might it occur to you about how it's made up of 11 Million lines of code, of how it is an open-source platform that's free and available online for download and customization, how it's developed by a tiny team of engineers in a sub-division of Google, or how it's an idea that was hatched on a beach in the Cayman Islands, by this guy named Andrew E. Rubin.
Andrew E. Rubin, or "Andy," as he is better known, had a distinguished career in the I.T. Industry. Not just a regular, ho-hum climb up the corporate ladder, mind you. He's worked with the best, as just his list of former employers and the positions he held will show:
- Carl Zeiss AG -- Robotics Engineer (1986 - 1989)
- Apple Inc. -- Manufacturing Engineer (1989 - 1992)
- General Magic -- Engineer (1992 - 1995)
- MSN TV -- Engineer (1995 - 1999)
- Danger, Inc. -- Co-Founder and CEO (1999 - 2003)
- Android, Inc. -- Co-Founder (2003 - 2005)
Today, Andy Rubin holds the title of Senior Vice President of Google, in charge of overseeing the Android project.
So he thought about the Android. So he co-founded the company behind the Android. So he had the guts to pitch the idea to Google and got more than the venture funding he wanted. Big deal. What's so special about this guy, aside from the fact that he did all that?
Maybe it's the fact that the Android had pulled the rug out of the major smartphone players, and like the proverbial dark horse that came up from behind and won the race, in less than 5 years, the Android, as a mobile device platform, has managed to wrestle 59% of the smartphone market share, helped resurrect dying companies (Motorola) and brought the smartphone and other "luxury" devices like tablets to a level that the Average Joe (or Juan) can afford, among other stunning accomplishments. How often does anyone obsess about creating a mobile device platform, dream about offering it as open-source software (meaning it's FREE and highly customizable), then revolutionize an industry, introduce a revolutionary, consumer-friendly business model, and change the world in the process? Not everyday, we bet.
But this is just the start. On Friday, we'll give you juicier trivia on the man behind the Android.
Resource:
Wikipedia -- Android
It started out as a dream hatched on a beach in the Cayman Islands.
Danger, Inc. had agreed with CEO Andrew E. Rubin that the company needed a new direction, and thus, a new leader. So what do you do when the company you helped build from the ground up fires you? You go clear your head in the Cayman Islands. It was there, on its beach, that the idea for an open-source operating system for mobile phones, came upon him.
Upon his return to Silicon Valley, Andy Rubin was on the lookout for investors who would be willing to provide venture capital for the new idea and the new company he was about to start. As he pitched it through his different prospects, he struck the mother lode when Google cofounder Larry Page not only loved the idea, he also bought Andy Rubin's new company.
What started out as a dream on a beach now translated into a 200-megabyte software made up of 11 million lines of code that now has a consumer base of at least 59% of the smartphone market share, with 550,000 new devices being activated every day, as of June 2011. More people are making their first smartphone an Android phone, and with the Android OS' seamless integration with all things Google, it's not hard to understand why.
One major draw of the Android is that its main kernel is based on Linux. Linux was the first user-friendly open-source operating system, and it has been known for its security and resistance to malware. Thus, unlike the Nokia Symbian platform, it will not be as vulnerable to mobile device malware. For those who have had horror stories of mistakenly downloading malware through bluetooth and seeing their smartphones be bricked thanks to that, this feature comes as a relief.
The second major draw is that the Android is not an operating system created for mobile phones; rather, it is an operating system created to power mobile phones and make them into handheld computers capable of surfing the Internet. Thus, the Android is all about multi-tasking and keeping a user connected to his online life.
And the third, and probably most important draw for the Android is its seamless integration with all things Google. More and more users have jumped on to Google because of its security and the applications and services it offers. With almost everything from bookmark managers to readers and even word processors and spreadsheets available as online apps from Google, there's no wonder why people are going on Google more and more.
From the OEMs' perspective, the major draw of the Android is that it is Open Source: free, and free for them to customize. This allows them to create devices without the need to develop their own platforms from the ground up, and therefore sell their devices at prices that consumers won't be able to resist.
The Android revolutionized how the Internet is accessed by the road warrior. More than that, they made the smartphone available to the Average Joe -- or Juan. An experience similar to the iPhone's iOS, at half, or even a third of the iPhone's price tag. With such pluses that are advantageous to everyone from the OEM to the consumer alike, you'd wonder why Andy Rubin didn't dream of this sooner.
Resources:
Follow Me @Instagram
