Andrew E. "Andy" Rubin is an American computer programmer, engineer,
entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the founder and CEO of tech startup
incubator Playground Global and a partner at venture capital firm Redpoint
Ventures. He is the co-founder and former CEO of both Danger Inc. and
Android Inc. He was Senior Vice President of Mobile and Digital Content
at Google until March 2013, where he oversaw development of Android, an
open-source operating system for smartphones. Rubin has seventeen patents
for his inventions. On 13 March 2013, Larry Page announced
in a blog post that Andy Rubin had moved from the Android division to take on new
projects at Google. He was replaced by Sundar Pichai, who now serves as
Google's CEO. In December 2013, Rubin was called to manage the robotics
division of Google. On 30 October 2014 he left Google after nine years at the
company to start an incubator for hardware startups.
Playground Global Playground Global is a tech incubator
that provides resources, mentorship and funding to startups making hardware
devices. Rubin founded the company in 2015 along with Peter Barrett, Matt
Hershenson and Bruce Leak. Playground Global has raised $48 million from
investors including Google, Hewlett-Packard Co., electronics
manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Tencent Holdings Ltd., Redpoint
Ventures, and Seagate Technology PLC. Early life
Rubin, born in 1962, grew up in Chappaqua, New York, the son of a
psychologist who later founded his own direct-marketing firm. His father's firm
created photographs of the latest electronic gadgets to be sent with
credit card bills. Rubin ran a computer bulletin board system in his youth.
Education Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua,
New York 1977–1981. Utica College, Utica, New York Bachelor
of Science degree in computer science 1981–1986.
Career Carl Zeiss AG, robotics engineer,
1986–1989. Apple Inc., manufacturing engineer,
1989–1992. General Magic, engineer, 1992–1995. An
Apple spin-off where he participated in developing Magic Cap, an operating
system and interface for hand-held mobile devices.
MSN TV, engineer, 1995–1999. When Magic Cap failed, Rubin joined Artemis
Research, founded by Steve Perlman, which became WebTV and was eventually
acquired by Microsoft. Danger Inc., co-founder, 1999–2003.
Founded with Matt Hershenson and Joe Britt. The firm is most notable for the
Danger Hiptop, branded for T-Mobile as the Sidekick, which is a phone with
PDA-like abilities. The firm was later acquired by Microsoft in February 2008.
Android Inc., co-founder 2003–2005. Google, 2005–2014: Senior Vice President
in charge of Android for most of his tenure. Since December 2013, managing
the robotics division of Google. Playground Global, 2014 - present:
Founder. Redpoint Ventures, 2015 - present:
Partner. List of patents
Andrew Rubin is named as an inventor in seventeen U.S. Patents:
U.S. Patent 6,701,522, Apparatus and method for portal device authentication,
2000 Apr 7, Assignee: Danger Inc. U.S. Patent 6,735,624, Method for
configuring and authenticating newly delivered portal device, 2000 Apr 7,
Assignee: Danger Inc. U.S. Patent 6,721,804, Portal system for
converting requested data into a bytecode format based on..., 2000 Nov
15, Assignee: Danger Inc. U.S. Patent 8,099,144, Electronic device
with hinge mechanism, 2007 Aug 20, Assignee: Google Inc.
U.S. Patent 8,065,508, Activating applications based on accelerometer
data, 2008 Nov 10, Assignee: Google Inc. U.S. Patent 8,271,413, Providing digital
content based on expected user behavior, 2008 Nov 25, Assignee: Google Inc.
U.S. Patent 8,260,998, Wireless communication with a dock, 2010 Oct 28,
Assignee: Google Inc. U.S. Patent 8,179,095, Estimating
remaining use time of a mobile device, 2011 Jun 10, Assignee: Google Inc.
U.S. Patent 7,960,945, Estimating remaining use time of a mobile device,
2011 Jun 14, Assignee: Google Inc. U.S. Patent 8,260,999, Wireless
communication with a dock, 2011 Sep 30, Assignee: Google Inc.
U.S. Patent 8,464,036, Activating applications based on accelerometer
data, 2011 Oct 20, Assignee: Google Inc. U.S. Patent 8,438,373, Activating
applications based on accelerometer data, 2011 Oct 21, Assignee: Google Inc.
U.S. Patent 8,285,250, Mobile device-based bandwidth throttling, 2011
Oct 27, Assignee: Google Inc. U.S. Patent 8,488,778, Electronic device
with hinge mechanism, 2012 Jan 3, Assignee: Google Inc.
U.S. Patent 8,437,738, Mobile device-based bandwidth throttling, 2012
Jun 7, Assignee: Google Inc. U.S. Patent 8,442,484, Mobile
device-based bandwidth throttling, 2012 Sep 13, Assignee: Google Inc.
U.S. Patent 8,437,736, Mobile device-based bandwidth throttling, 2012
Sep 13, Assignee: Google Inc. References
External links "Designing Products Your Customers Will
Love", Andy Rubin speaks at Stanford University
"Android on the March", Financial Post September 17, 2010
"Android Invasion", Newsweek October 3, 2010