Google's Andy Rubin on Everything Android
Andy Rubin, a vice president of engineering at Google, leads one of the search giant's most important efforts—the development of Android, Google's open source platform for smartphones and other mobile devices. — Android, of course …
Context & Ripple Effects
When Google's mobile ambitions surfaced in 2007, the running debate was whether the company would ship its own handset — the framing of The Real Google Phone. Three years later the answer stands corrected: rather than one Google phone, Andy Rubin runs Android as an open-source platform for any smartphone maker, and the strategy is showing up in the numbers.
The timing matters: AdMob's packaged data shows Android's device ecosystem becoming increasingly diversified across manufacturers, and just days before this conversation Google extended free turn-by-turn Navigation to UK Android devices via an overnight update. Rubin also speaks from a company openly backing FCC net neutrality regulation regardless of which section of the Communications Act carries it.
First-order effects
- Handset makers building on Android get Google services like turn-by-turn Navigation bundled free into the platform, changing what they must pay for versus inherit.
- Rubin's dual role — engineering VP and public voice on net neutrality — ties Android's carrier relationships directly to Google's regulatory posture.
Second-order effects
- With the operating system open and free, differentiation among Android OEMs shifts entirely to hardware and skins, while paid navigation and licensed mobile-OS players face a competitor whose price is zero.
- Google's pattern of building platforms (Android, App Engine, iGoogle) then kick-starting them with first-party apps pressures developers to build for Android first, deepening the ecosystem moat.
Third-order effects
- If the open-source-plus-services model holds, the mobile industry's value migrates from operating-system licensing to the advertising and data layers on top — a structure where a search company holds the leverage incumbents once did through OS fees.
The trend: Mobile computing is shifting from proprietary licensed operating systems toward open platforms funded by services and advertising, with Google's Android as the template.