Andy Rubin, the man that is widely known as the father of the now ubiquitous Android operating system, is interested to make handsets once again. According to reports, which cite people in the mobile industry, Rubin is on an ongoing process to recruit people to build his own company for handsets.
Rubin's name has been absent in the smartphone industry for quite some time now, but he's still widely recognized and involved through his Playground Global fund, a hardware-focused incubator that provides support and advice to tech startups in producing their own products.
Reports say that Rubin has been trying to recruit people to help build his new phone company, and it will likely be financed through his own incubator, which has already raised about $300M. However, a company manufacturing smartphone hardware is known to yield low profits, as compared to a wide number of companies in the United States that have taken advantage of OEMs based in China to sell smartphones for less. However, it is easier now for a well-funded company to design and manufacture a high-performance handset even without too much investment as well as research and development.
Android was founded by Rubin nearly 12 years ago, and it was acquired by Google Inc. in 2005. However, he remained in charge of the operating system, until Sundar Pichai himself took over. Rubin, on the other hand, remained to oversee the purchase of several robotics startups at Google Inc.
There are a handful of smartphone companies in the Android race, and there seems to be no shortage of it at the moment. It also has several new entries in the playing field such as the Nextbit Robin and OnePlus' line of One devices working their way to midranged category. Rubin's opportunity may lie in the high-end smartphone race where premium, high-performance handsets by Apple, LG, Samsung and HTC roam about.
