Andy Rubin The Android Inventor

Photo credit: karitsu.
Andy Rubin is the inventor of Android. He was born on June 22, 1946 in New Bedford, United States. He is the first developer of the Android operating system before being acquired by Google. Since childhood, Rubin has been used to seeing lots of new gadgets. This is because his father, a psychologist who swerved into the world of direct marketing. The electronic products that is sold by his father are kept in Andy Rubin's room.

He has a great interest in all robotic things. In Carl Zeiss AG, where he first worked after graduating from college, Rubin was placed in a division of robotics, in digital communications between network devices and manufacturing measurement. Following from Carl Zeiss, he had worked in the field of robot at a company in Switzerland.

Rubin career in the field of robotics seems increasingly clear, but his life changed after vacationing in the Cayman Islands in 1989. When visiting tropical islands in Jamaica, Rubin accidentally met with a man named Bill Caswell. This man was sleeping on the beach, driven from a cottage after a fight with his girlfriend. Andy offers him a place to stay, and as a sign of remuneration, Casswell offers him a job.

An amazing coincidence that the person is working at Apple. At Apple, Rubin has a pleasant period. At that time, Apple is still in pretty good financial shape thanks to sales of Macintosh computers. Apple culture is transmitted to the self-Rubin. There he was committing a crime, such as reprogramming the phone system so that he could pretend to be John Sculley, Apple's CEO at the time. Jokes like it might want to do by Steve Jobs, founder of Apple who likes to make jokes over the phone, but that time is a period of Apple without Steve Jobs.

From the manufacturing division, Rubin moved to the research division at Apple. Then, in 1990, Apple did a rotation to form a company called General Magic and Rubin took part in it. General Magic focuses on the development of handheld device and communication. The engineers workaholic, including Rubin, of course, has developed software called Magic Cap. Unfortunately, the Magic Cap was not accepted by the telecommunications company handset manufacturers. General Magic finally destroyed.

Some developers at General Magic, along with several veterans of Apple, then set up Artemis Research. The company is developing something called WebTV, an early attempt to combine the Internet with television. Rubin joined Artemis to participate in developing the WebTV. When Microsoft bought the company Artemis, in 1997, Rubin was joined by Microsoft, the giant company. In Microsoft, Rubin had an episode that angered Microsoft. Where Rubin build a robot equipped with cameras to work on his colleagues. Crazy, the robot is connected to the Internet and in one incident burglarized by parties outside Microsoft. In 1999, Rubin finally got out of WebTV. He then rented a store in Palo Alto, California, and call the store as a laboratory.

The place is filled with a variety of robot toy collection, was born the idea of the head of Rubin for a new product. Along with several colleagues, Rubin later founded the company named Danger Inc. Success was achieved Rubin through a device called Danger Sidekick. Initially, the device is named Danger Hiptop, but later known as T-Mobile Sidekick.

"We wanted to create a device, about the size of a bar of chocolate, with prices under $10 and can be used to scan an object and get information about it from the Internet. Then, add the radio and transmitter, then so be Sidekick." Rubin explanation of the Sidekick.

Currently Danger Sidekick certainly outdated. But in that time, the Sidekick is an object with the technology that goes beyond its time. A device that has the ability to call and access the data. When Sidekick first hit the market, Sidekick must face the fact that the PDA market is being lost. However, Rubin insists that the Sidekick is not a PDA.

"People should be asked whether this is a PDA or cell phone. They have to ask, if this is a platform for third-party developers? This is not a new thing. This is the first time a mobile phone is used as a platform for third-party developers." said Rubin.

Currently what was said by Rubin is not a strange thing again. Just look at the Apple Store now that has millions of third-party applications to be used in iPhone and iPad. Another thing that makes Danger, which at that time had not thought of, is a bridge between handset makers with the network provider. Danger Inc. decided to share the profits with the service T-Mobile Sidekick. Thus, Danger does not depend on handset sales as the sole source of income, but also the service. This makes the device manufacturer (Danger) has the same purpose as (telecom operator T-Mobile) seller.

Rubin left Danger Inc. in 2004. In 2008 the company was purchased by Microsoft. The software giant is apparently keen to enter the mobile phone business more aggressively again. Value offered was not half-hearted. According to reports circulating Microsoft bought Danger Inc. for $500 million. However, the purchase of Danger by Microsoft does not bring satisfactory results. The remaining executive of Danger incorporated by Microsoft into the Mobile Communications Business, Entertainment and Hardware. Then, they were asked to develop mobile phones known as Project Pink. The target, this phone should be a rival to the iPhone and BlackBerry. According to Computerworld, Project Pink is a classic disease in a large company. Because this project is quite prestigious, he contested by several parties. And worse, its development increasingly deviated from its original purpose. For example, the phone will initially be developed on the basis of Java, but then asked to use the Microsoft operating system.

Unfortunately, Windows Phone 7 should be used for Project Pink, is not ready. As a result, when launched, a phone that was eventually named Microsoft Kin is using the outdated Windows operating system for mobile phones. No respond from the market finally make Kin should be closed, only a few months since its launch. The fate of the Sidekick services, Microsoft inherited from Danger also fared poorly. In one incident, which is still not known exactly what causes it, Sidekick customers suddenly lost all their data. One thing to note, all the data on a Sidekick stored 'in the cloud' (in this case running on Microsoft server and can be accessed via the internet). Well, when the server is turned off, all data is lost Sidekick users.

In early 2002, Rubin was giving a lecture at Stanford on the development of the Sidekick. Because, although sales of Sidekick on the market did not explode, the device was considered quite innovative in terms of technology. A coincidence that Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, is also present in the lecture. After college, Rubin showed to Lary Page Sidekick device closely. Apparently the device uses Google search engine. "Cool," said Lary Page. This is the starting point for Lary Page about the idea of a Google mobile phone which will be realized a few years later. About two years later, Rubin has left Danger and try to do new things. This includes trying to enter the digital camera business before he founded Android.

Andy Rubin later founded Android Inc. with Redpoint Ventures venture capital in 2004. "Android started from a simple idea, providing a powerful mobile platform and open so that it can drive innovation faster and beneficial to customers." said Rubin. In July 2005, 22 months after the Android stand, the company was bought by search engine giant Google. Rubin also choose to join Google. When bought Android Inc., Google did not mention in detail how the price paid and what should be done with the company. Even Google says only buy human resources and technology alone. In addition to Andy Rubin, Google also brought a lot of brilliant people of Android. These include Andy McFadden (WebTV developers with Rubin, and also developers Moxi Digital), Richard Miner (former vice president at the telecommunications company Orange) and Chris White (founder of Android and display and interface designers WebTV).

Together with Google, Android has additional powers. The company from Mountain View, California, and then formed the Open Handset Alliance to develop tools for Android.
"Google can not do it all. And we do not need to do that. That's why we formed the Open Handset Alliance with more than 34 partners." said Rubin.

Android devices that are present in the market are not created by Google. Android hardware manufacturers such as Motorola, Samsung, and HTC respectively throw their flagship Android phones to market. "Just make the software alone is not enough." Rubin explains, "you need a hardware development to software and networking."

In the US, the Motorola Droid so one weapon against Verizon Wireless, AT & T with its iPhone. While the Nexus One, Google's Android phone made by HTC, comes with no "formal ties" on a particular operator.

If you liked this Android article, then please share to facebook, twitter, or Google+.