Mar

Andy Rubin To Step Down As Head Of Android At Google, To Be Succeeded By Chrome OS Lead

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News

Update: Here's Andy Rubin's farewell letter to Android partners. (via The Verge)

Dear friends,

In November of 2007 we announced the Open Handset Alliance with 34 founding members. Today, I'm grateful to the over 85 OHA members who have helped us build Android and drive innovation at such an incredible pace. The Android ecosystem has seen tremendous growth since the launch of the very first Android device in October 2008. The volume and variety of Android devices exceeds even my most optimistic expectations - over 750 million compatible devices and counting!

At its core, Android has always been about openness - the idea that a thousand brains are better than one.

Mar

[Weekend Poll] Should Google Build Retail Stores?

Posted by David Ruddock in Google, Polls

Now that Andy Rubin himself has officially snubbed what were apparently rather strong rumors of Google opening its own retail stores in the US, there's a lot of humdrum floating around about whether or not a Google Store would actually make sense.

On the one hand, with its increasing arsenal of hardware products on the Play Store, Google definitely has a wide enough selection of toys to at least give a standalone brick and mortar location (or two) a shot. Nexus phones, tablets, Chromebooks (along with accessories for all those devices), Play Store gift cards, and opportunities to sign up for premium Google services (eg, more Google Drive space) could really open up a lot more people to the idea that Google isn't just about search, email, and maps.

Feb

[MWC 2013] Andy Rubin, Finger To The Side Of His Nose, Says Google Has No Plans For Retail Stores

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Andy Rubin, you coy devil. I suppose we could ignore those rumors about Google retail stores if you ask nicely and bat your eyes at us. That's what the head of Android would like us to do, anyway, as he spoke at Mobile World Congress stating that "Google has no plans [for a retail store] and we have nothing to announce."

Why not, though? This sure sounds like a good idea to a lot of us in the Android fan world. Well, according to Rubin, people are able to make decisions about which phone they'd like to buy without actually seeing the hardware.

Jan

Android: A Look Back To 2012, And A Look Forward To 2013

Posted by Ron Amadeo in Editorials, News, Rumors

Last Updated: January 7th, 2013

Happy New Year! It's that time again; with the new year comes our new annual prediction post. I tackled this last year, and rather than do a bunch of crazy, pulled-from-thin-air predictions, I ended up with a link-filled research-fest for the year. It worked out pretty well, so that's what's on the docket for today. First though, I'll take a look and see just how many of last year's predictions and rumors came true, and provide some updates for the more important topics.

A Look Back To 2012

What a crazy year. 2012 brought us two versions of Jelly Bean: 4.1 and 4.2. We saw a complete transformation of Google Search with the Knowledge Graph, Google Now, voice output, and Google Goggles integration.

Oct

Tomorrow's Google Event Isn't The Only Thing That's Cancelled - D: Dive Into Mobile Postponed

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

Hurricane Sandy is just not letting anyone catch a break. In addition to causing the cancelation of Google's Android event, where we were expecting the company to tell us about a whole bunch of fun stuff, it looks like D: Dive Into Mobile is also being postponed. Among many others, Andy Rubin was scheduled to speak at the event.

As of right now, All Things D has not said when the event will be rescheduled for. We imagine we won't hear any prospective replacement dates until the hurricane has passed. Of course, as gadget nerds, we're not thrilled that yet another event is being postponed due to the hurricane, but the safety of the attendees is obviously the most important.

Sep

Editorial: What Has Alibaba's Aliyun Shown Us About Google's Assertion Of Control Over Android?

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials

In the last week, many tech-savvy westerners have gotten more familiar than they probably would have ever liked to with a Chinese company by the name of Alibaba. Most of those people still probably aren't aware just quite how huge the Hangzhou-based firm is.

Its net worth is somewhere in the neighborhood of $30-$40 billion. It employs over 25,000 people. Its campus is a piece of architecture worth appreciating on its own merits.

In short, Alibaba is to China what Amazon (including cloud computing and mobile OS aspirations) and eBay (plus PayPal) are to the United States. Alibaba also controls China Yahoo!, which remains one of the country's most popular web portals.

Jun

Android Head Andy Rubin Not Leaving Google As Rumored, Cites 900,000 Android Activations Each Day

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in News, Rumors

Influential tech personality, and sometimes well-meaning rumormonger Robert Scoble kicked up some controversy earlier today when he reported via Google+ that Google's Andy Rubin was preparing to make an exit. Rubin, Scoble claimed, was planning to leave Google to take charge of a new startup called CloudCar. Andy Rubin has always been in charge of Android, so his departure would have cast an undeniable pallor over the upcoming Google I/O.

Just a few hours after Scoble posted his thoughts on the matter, Andy Rubin came out of the woodwork on Twitter to make it clear he was not leaving Google. Rubin was the founder of Android, which was bought by Google back in 2005.

May

Google And Motorola's Shotgun Wedding Is Final - And It's Definitely Going To Change Things For Android

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, Google, Legal, Motorola, News

Today, Google announced that its acquisition of Motorola Mobility had officially closed. Make no mistake, this merger is something of a shotgun arrangement - and the offspring conceived out of wedlock is Android. So, how did we get here, two and a half years after the first DROID?

A Brief History Of Motorola And Android

Motorola was once Google's model manufacturer partner. At least in the US, it produced what was the most popular "first generation" Android smartphone, the original Motorola DROID. The OG DROID was responsible for "hooking" many people on the operating system, whether through endlessly modifying and tweaking the device, or simply for its stellar build quality and reliability (those things were little tanks), it was truly the work-horse that first brought Android into the hands of a large number of people here in the US.

Feb

Google: There Are More Than 850,000 Android Devices Activated Daily, 300 Million Activated To Date - 450,000 Apps On The Market

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

Call it momentum, a robot invasion, or a force of nature, the one thing you can't say about Android's proliferation is that it's insignificant. Andy Rubin took the opportunity during MWC to let slip some new Android activation figures. Chief among them, Android is now activating more than 850,000 devices daily, and Google has activated a lifetime total of 300 million devices.

This number is absolutely astonishing. To put that in perspective, at the current rate of activation, roughly every ten days Google activates more devices than there are people in New York City. By mid-march, there will be more Android devices in the world than there are people in the entire United States.

Dec

Android Keeps Rolling Forward: 3.7 Million Devices Activated Over Christmas Weekend

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, News

Last Updated: January 6th, 2012

Did you give or receive an Android device for Christmas? Even if you did not, it looks like a whole host of people found the green robot under their tree this Christmas. According to a tweet from the ever-so-candid Android head Andy Rubin, 3.7 million Android devices were activated over the 24th and 25th of December.

UPDATE: There were 3.7M Android devices activated on 12/24 and 12/25.

— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) December 28, 2011

Just over a week ago we reported that device activations had hit about 700k a day, which suggests that the Christmas weekend figures of approximately 1.85 million activations, per day, is a significant increase.