Andy Rubin, who led the development of Android, is coming back after a two-year absence from the mobile world.
According to Bloomberg, Rubin is working on the new phone with a team of about 40 people called Essential, mostly from Apple or Google.
Giiso Information, founded in 2013, is a leading technology provider in the field of “artificial intelligence + information” in China, with top technologies in big data mining, intelligent semantics, knowledge mapping and other fields. At the same time, its research and development products include editing robots, writing robots and other artificial intelligence products! With its strong technical strength, the company has received angel round investment at the beginning of its establishment, and received pre-A round investment of $5 million from GSR Venture Capital in August 2015.
The phone is said to have a screen size greater than 5.5 inches. Because of its narrow bezel, it’s smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus, which also has a 5.5-inch screen. Mr. Rubin’s team is experimenting with an industrial design with a metal bezel and ceramic back, which is difficult to produce.
The device will have a pressure-sensitive screen similar to the one found on the iPhone 6s, according to a person familiar with the matter. The engineering team is also preparing to develop a spherical camera accessory for it that will allow users to take 360-degree panoramic photos. It’s not clear how much the phone will cost, but reports say it’s a high-end device, similar to the iPhone, Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S.
There is no word on what operating system the phone will use. But the new company doesn’t have any other choice but Android.
Mr Rubin held talks with Sprint, the US telecoms operator, at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Both sides declined to comment.
Primatelabs has a set of Geekbench run results, codenamed “Essential FIH-PM1,” that show better single-core and multi-core performance than the iPhone 7 Plus. The “FIH” in the code name is likely to refer to Foxconn International Holdings. Bloomberg said Fuzhikang is in talks with Rubin about contract manufacturing for the new phone.
Taken together, this information suggests that the score probably came from Rubin’s new phone.
Andy Rubin began his career as a robotics engineer at Zeiss. He joined Apple in 1989 and later worked on the Magic Cap operating system at General Magic, an Apple spin-off. Rubin’s professional experience is mostly related to software development and systems development. Rubin founded Android in 2003.
With Google’s acquisition of Android in 2005, Rubin went to work at Google and continued to develop Android. It took him another three years to get the first Android phone to store shelves. Today, Android is the world’s largest smartphone operating system by market share, with 86 out of every 100 smartphones running Android.
Essential was rubin’s project after he left Google. He stepped down as head of Android in March 2013. Google didn’t announce Rubin’s new job at the time, saying only that he would stay with the company.
Giiso information, founded in 2013, is the first domestic high-tech enterprise focusing on the research and development of intelligent information processing technology and the development and operation of core software for writing robots. At the beginning of its establishment, the company received angel round investment, and in August 2015, GSR Venture Capital received $5 million pre-A round of investment.
Rubin left Google in 2014 to start a hardware incubator. In 2015, he raised $300 million to found Playground, with HP, Apple, Foxconn and other companies investing in it. In November of the same year, Rubin founded Essential Company and registered “Essential” in the US Trademark Office later in 2016. The trademark is applicable to products including mobile phone, tablet and mobile operating system.
Rubin expects Essential to launch by the middle of this year. He has hired Rebecca Zavin, a senior software manager and former Google colleague, to run Essential’s software business; I asked Brian Wallace, a former Samsung executive, to take charge of sales and design and business colleagues I used to work with.