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Update from the CEO
- ryanmolden 14y agoTitle seems misleading, the post said Andy is moving on to other things at Google. Edit: fixed (it used to be "Google lets go Andy Rubin", which is generally a euphemism for fired)
- aaronbrethorst 14y agoSort-of thank you to the mod who changed the title. The old one ("Google lets go its (sic) Android head Andy Rubin, appoints Sundar Pichai") was editorializing and incorrect, but the new one ("Update from the CEO") is completely useless. On a related note, I find it rather fascinating that Andy is planning on staying in Google. Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google. I wonder what the real story is.
- recoiledsnake 14y ago>Google lets go its (sic) Android head... Why put the (sic) tag there? Should it have been "it's" which expands to "Google lets go it is Android head..."?
- quarterto 14y agoThe lack of "of"?
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- jongraehl 14y agoYou can let someone go without letting go of them.
- prodigal_erik 14y agoThat would be "Google let its Android head go". Maybe the title edit was by a Brit who prefers "their" (plural) over "its" (singular) for companies? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Formal_and_notional_agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_di...
- bengillies 14y agoHe's done quite a good job of increasing Android adoption, so my guess would be that he'll be working on the hardware/nexus side of things.
- hugoc 14y agoI also think he could do a great job leading the nexus program or something alike in motorola, but I feel he'll just hang around for a little while so as not to create much fuzz before leaving google entirely.
- DannyBee 14y agoThe real story? He won. What's left for him to do? Sit around and defend 70% market share for 10 years? Get deposed in a lot of lawsuits? I certainly wouldn't enjoy either :)
- samspenc 14y agoExactly what I was thinking. :)
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- enraged_camel 14y ago>>Today Chrome has hundreds of millions of happy users and is growing fast thanks to its speed, simplicity and security. Simplicity and security, fine. But speed? That's hardly the reason people prefer Chrome these days.
- clone1018 14y agoSpeed is the reason I prefer Chrome, is Chrome not fast for you?
- enraged_camel 14y agoIt's decent, but Firefox seems a lot faster. Completely anecdotal of course. edit: not sure why I'm being downvoted
- tehwalrus 14y agoThere was an article only the other day about how firefox is faster, on the front page. I've even switched to it (for a few days, to see) myself!
- mzarate06 14y agoSame here. In particular, page rendering and repaints appear noticeably faster in Chrome than in Firefox of Opera. However, I notice the difference more on Linux than I do on my Windows machine.
- simonw 14y agoChrome's networking performance optimisations are brilliant, and currently unmatched by any other browser. http://www.igvita.com/posa/high-performance-networking-in-google-chrome/ http://www.igvita.com/posa/high-performance-networking-in-go...
- slig 14y agoCome on. Few nerds like us are concerned with benchmarks and perceived performance. Most people don't know what a browser is or what's their preference in the matter, they just use whatever is installed.
- leeoniya 14y agowhat an unhelpful title EDIT: for those downvoting me, how is "Update from the CEO" in any way relevant to the article's content?
- kaoD 14y agoI had quite a few random downvotes today too (for completely aseptic claims) so I suspect someone's trolling.
- jessaustin 14y agoWe need a unique term for such behavior. "Trolling" seems to be a different, broader thing. "Karma griefing"? b^)
- suyash 14y ago+1 it shows how egoist the CEO is.
- outside1234 14y agoI suspect that Andy is not in fact staying on at Google but instead this is a golden parachute in which he will pretend to stick around as "a consultant to the CEO" before leaving.
- eitally 14y agoIt could be, or he could be moving into a hardware role at Motorola Mobility. <shrug>
- outside1234 14y agoCould be. Would be a great pick to drive Glass. Or build robots.
- snowwrestler 14y agoSeems to me that if he were moving to head another high-profile project at Google, it would have been part of this announcement.
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoI was under the impression that Sergey was heading Glass.
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- recoiledsnake 14y agoSince Sundar Pichai is the head of ChromeOS, perhaps this move is part of a larger move to unify Android and ChromeOS.
- pramodliv1 14y agoYeah! Looking forward to seeing how that pans out.. ChromeOS on Android?
- mikegioia 14y agoAn operating sytem, on top of an operating system, on top of the linux kernel?
- hugoc 14y agoShouldn't it be a web browser, on top of an operating system, on top of the linux kernel? Like chrome on android or ubuntu?
- jholman 14y agoNo no, a cloud ecosystem, on an operating system, on top of an operating system, on top of the linux kernel. It's a great idea, especially on a power-constrained device like a phone. Just add in Bellard's jslinux, and you can go 'round again.
- hugoc 14y agoHow would that work? What would it be like? Android is powered by native apps, Chrome by cloud apps. Chrome already runs on Android. They have different approaches and I don't see how they how they could form a coherent whole or how one would benefit from a merger with the other. :/
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago> Android is powered by native apps, Chrome by cloud apps. Android is powered by Java apps (mostly). Java apps run in a virtual machine, just like web apps. Java apps are no more native than Chrome packaged apps.
- dguido 14y agoAndy Rubin was the major factor responsible for insecure Android devices. He thought it was impossible to be both secure and 'X' for any 'X'. Meanwhile, Andy Rubin's replacement is Sundar Pichai, SVP for Chrome and ChromeOS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundar_Pichai http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundar_Pichai If you care at all about the security of Android mobile devices, this is probably a good sign. EDIT: I wonder if this helped move Andy out the door? http://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/07/phil-schiller-tweets-link-to-mobile-malware-report-that-slams-android/ http://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/07/phil-schiller-tweets-lin...
- jmillikin 14y agoNot to mention that Chrome has figured out how to push updates, while a majority of Androids are still running a version released over two years ago. If Google can start pushing auto-updates to all of its devices, that would be one of the greatest improvements ever made to Android. Also, one of Chrome's most touted features is performance, which has always been Android's weakest point. Hopefully he'll be willing to assign more people to the task of making Androids work as smoothly as iPhones.
- laureny 14y ago> Not to mention that Chrome has figured out how to push updates, while a majority of Androids are still running a version released over two years ago. The reason for the hold out is the carriers, not Google. Google is very good at pushing updates to phones when it's not limited by the carriers (and Android implemented over the air updates years before anyone else did. iPhones still require cables to be updated).
- jojopotato 14y agoI haven't required a cable for an iOS update for a while.
- jhammer 14y agoiPhones have not required tethered updating for a year and a half now. OTA updating arrived in iOS 5.
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- damniatx 14y agoChrome OS and Android merger please?
- msoad 14y agoI know something for sure and that is Java is not the future of Android. Android will run web apps in future. In makes sense in many different ways: - Google is a huge pusher of web platform. They want it on mobile. - They are pushing new APIs to HTML5 everyday to make it more suitable for mobile - Google is the only one that can make real mobile web apps a reality - Did you ever see that metal android status in Google campus? They want choromize the Andriod
- Zigurd 14y agoI really don't understand the attraction of "making the one thing." Chrome/ChromeOS and Android are very different. Neither is going to supplant the other. They also have some clashing goals: Chrome wants to be more security paranoid than Android. In theory Google can find Android malware authors, cut them off from access to Google Play, and kill bad apps in the field, while Chrome is exposed to both malevolent and hacked Web sites. I see harmonization as more of a product management activity than any particular technical choice.
- philwelch 14y agoAlong with Sinofsky and Forstall late last year, this means the initial heads of all three major mobile platforms are now out.
- sdfjkl 14y agoBetter title "Andy Rubin hands Android team to former Chrome lead, stays at Google".
- mtgx 14y agoI would've preferred Vic Gundotra to take the lead of Android. He's a much more "experience" kind of guy, and a great speaker, too. But I guess Sundar Pichai isn't a bad choice, either, especially if they plan on unifying the 2 platforms. But he's still more of a "core" product guy, than a human interface guy. I just hope he at least leaves Matias Duarte enough independence.
- Lewisham 14y agoMy read is that Pichai is a really good at ops, and the experience stuff will be left to Duarte. It seems like a good partnership to have on the Android boat.
- pinaceae 14y agoObservation by Benedict Evans: almost all key divisional leads at Google were born in India. Android, Engineering, Advertising, Youtube… Polar opposite to Apple, which is a white boys club.
- SoftwareMaven 14y agoIt couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Apple's 20 years older than Google, Apple has had really good retention, and the make-up of the Valley has changed dramatically in that 20 years? The implied racial dig is beneath HN. EDIT: Another thought: Google has also done a huge amount of its growth through acquisitions, whereas Apple has done very few. That likely further pushes Apple's leadership to "old-school" people in the Valley: they haven't brought in large numbers of executives of smaller companies that effectively start at the middle-top in Google.
- pinaceae 14y agoanother factor might be Google's focus on PhDs.
- jholman 14y agoThere are lots of Indians in top Google management, definitely, but they're hardly the majority. Maybe 25% of "key divisional leads", maybe 25% of SVPs (a group that greatly overlaps with "key divisional leads"). First of all, there's no "key divisional lead" of "engineering". That's not a division at the top level. That'd be a pretty stupid top-level division, in a company which is mostly engineering (I'm deliberately obfuscating exact ratios). Second, the SVP of Ads is Polish, and the SVP of Youtube is Persian. So that's two more things wrong with the four examples. Indian: Chrome/Apps/Android, G+, and Sales/Business. Not Indian: Ads, Search, YouTube, TechInfra, Finance, Legal, Sergei (a law unto himself), Geo/Commerce, Motorola, HR, PR, ..... In short, who the heck is Benedict Evans, and given that he is gibbering, why are you quoting him?
- pinaceae 14y agohttp://ben-evans.com/ http://ben-evans.com/ thanks for clearing this up, hard to find the real org chart of google.
- charlieok 14y ago“We’re getting closer to a world where technology takes care of the hard work—discovery, organization, communication—so that you can get on with what makes you happiest… living and loving.” Just lie back and let yourself sink into the goo. Don't worry about all that messy technology behind the curtains. We've got that taken care of. Have a nice day :)
- stcredzero 14y agoIsn't that what nerds have always wanted? To be the ones saying that.
- charlieok 14y agoyeah, pretty much
- mmanfrin 14y agoI remember the week or so when both Sinofsy and Forstall were let go, people jokingly said 'these come in threes, look out for Rubin'. Turns out that was true.
- cek 14y ago> But his insight immediately struck a chord because at the time it was extremely painful developing services for mobile devices. We had a closet full of more than 100 phones and were building our software pretty much device by device. It was nearly impossible for us to make truly great mobile experiences. This is highly ironic statement given that one of the biggest pain developers trying to build mobile experiences face today is the number of devices they have to test on, and that Android plays no small part in making it worse. The drawer/closet you have, full of all those test devices? it's called the "Drawer of broken dreams."
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- technotony 14y agoDevice fragmentation on Android is nothing like fragmentation used to be. At least on Android you can write one app and then tweak it to work on different devices, previously you had to write apps as different as Android/iOS/Windows for each device - and often individual manufacturers even had multiple platforms to write for. And don't even get me started on distribution. You used to have to negotiate with carriers in each country to get them to carry your application. Now I publish on Google Play and my app is available to 750 million people four hours later. And if you build a good app, and figure out the app SEO, you will get hundreds or thousands of downloads a day. So I think we owe Google some congratulations.
- recoiledsnake 14y ago>At least on Android you can write one app and then tweak it to work on different devices, previously you had to write apps as different as Android/iOS/Windows for each device - and often individual manufacturers even had multiple platforms to write for. >So I think we owe Google some congratulations. Before Android, you could write a Windows Mobile app and have it run pretty much on every Windows Mobile device and the same with Blackberry and iPhones. The biggest problem with Android is that the OEMs and carriers abuse the open nature to make their own custom skins which are not compatible with updates. Google did not take a hard line on this like, say, Windows Phone did
- xxiao 14y agowhy is he fired?
- sidcool 14y agoAndy Rubin is not leaving Google, is he?
- aashaykumar92 14y agoNew Pope, New Head of Android--a wonderful correlation...just kidding. It's an obvious move to try and blend Chromes OS with Android more seamlessly but I think it also means something else BIG at Google is coming--and not their everyday-'big'. As qualified as Pichai is, it doesn't make sense for Rubin to go anywhere UNLESS he truly is upto something groundbreaking. My bet is that Rubin has a vision, perhaps a "moonshot" as Paige said, that impressed the execs at Google so much that it made sense for him to move on from his current position. It'll be interesting to see exactly what this is, but I have to imagine Rubin is upto something the masses (most of us) have not yet heard about...and his ingenuity will be absorbed by Google themselves.
- aashaykumar92 14y agosome backup to my above comment: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/13/andy-rubins-next-moonshot-could-happen-at-googles-project-x/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/13/andy-rubins-next-moonshot-c...
- programminggeek 14y agoAnother way to look at it is that Android was a home run and basically accomplished everything it was supposed to do, not much left for Rubin to accomplish.
- mcintyre1994 14y agoSure, it's probably achieved everything it was meant to - like Google probably had when they first became the top search engine. I really doubt anybody is leaving because of that though, it's certainly not perfect, and it's certainly not achieved everything it can achieve. In fact, it probably hasn't achieved everything it is meant to achieve now. Goals aren't static, nobody's going to leave because there's nothing left to achieve with Android.
- hugh4life 14y agoWhether Android and ChromeOS are merged or Android scales up to the desktop, I hope Google makes a big play for the desktop within the next 1-2 years. 1. Microsoft support for Windows XP ends in about a year leaving a huge chunk of their users orphaned. 2. PC sales are flatlining... there's a sense among users that performance is getting to be "good enough" 3. Apple isn't really even trying to compete in countries that aren't somewhat well to do. 4. The ARM Cortex-A15 will help bring those ARM mini-pc sticks and net tops up to task for desktop work.
- verelo 14y agoThis is an interestingly timed article. We're building our Android app right now, and its certainly more annoying than when we built out iOS app. As an app developer, in Canada (not Canadian however) i'm excited that RIM have attempted to prevent further fragmentation by sticking close to the Android stack, however i really don't want to deal with the distribution and other issues (such as screens, OS bugs etc) that i'm sure will come with releasing on a 3rd platform. I feel like we're dealing with the issues similar to what were encountered during the 17-1800's with different size railway tracks. Is it just a matter of time until we agree upon a standard?
- tadfisher 14y ago> however i really don't want to deal with the distribution and other issues (such as screens, OS bugs etc) that i'm sure will come with releasing on a 3rd platform. Is this better or worse than developing for a completely different platform (i.e. BB<10, WP7/8, etc)?
- verelo 14y agoI think its better for sure, but i'm sure there will be bugs that only exist on Blackberry and those that only exist on Android. I suspect that eventually we would (will...) end up with two builds anyway. Overhead, it would be great if Blackberry could just start making Android phones...
- Ologn 14y agoRubin is someone who, from his days of running a BBS in New York many years ago, to creating and working to expand Android more recently, has always had a strong alignment with the values of free software, hackers and hobbyists. Over two decades ago he praised those who "write their programs for the hobby, for the hack". His commitment and his efforts for open source software and open platforms have borne fruit with an open platform which accounted for over 70% of smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2012. I am grateful for his efforts in this regard, especially since I have been focusing on writing Android apps for the past few years.
- pragmatictester 14y agoPure speculation here: Andy might work on a new version of Android which will integrate Android with Google's self-driving car, and also bring the work done by CloudCar to Android. http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/22/cloudcar-the-stealthy-startup-that-andy-rubin-is-not-joining-has-raised-11-5m/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/22/cloudcar-the-stealthy-start...
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- znowi 14y agoThis is an unusually bleak and uninspiring message. Reads like a mundane press release. An average update from a small startup founder is more exciting.
- zmmmmm 14y ago> Sundar will do a tremendous job doubling down on Android as we work to push the ecosystem forward This is really incongruous. You don't move a project from having a dedicated top level manager to being one-of-many under someone else as a way of "doubling down" on it (what an awful expression). It makes no sense, if Google sees Android has having future in its own right as one of Google's top priorities, that they put it under management with somebody with so many other priorities. I can only conclude that either a) Sundar is a temporary replacement while they locate someone of Andy's stature as a replacement to lead Android in its own right or b) Google has charted somewhere far in the future that Android will get folded, substantially merged or otherwise share some kind of significant synergy with the other projects that Sundar Pichai is in charge of. I find b) quite worrying because it signals an end to the (healthy) competitive tension that Google promoted internally where both Android and ChromeOS were pursued as independent ventures and "may the best man win" would determine the outcome. I also find it worrying because no matter how they spin it, I don't see how this can not seem like a blow to the esteem of the Android team - they've effectively been taken over by another division, effectively falling down one step in the company ladder. To have that happen after establishing one of the most incredible technology success stories in history - I can't imagine how deflating that would be to the team members. I hope Android doesn't lose a lot of talent from this. A huge amount is going to depend on how well Sundar Pichai handles this transition.
- andyl 14y agoIf ChromeOS and Android merge, then a comparable is - Ubuntu! They would both have a mobile/desktop linux distro.
- alexpopescu 14y agoWait... where is this post saying what's going on with Andy Rubin? Let me understand: you have a guy that leads one of the most adopted projects coming out of Google and then you announce a new person to lead that project without mentioning anything about the former? That should be an awesome feeling for everyone at G...
- fulafel 14y agoThe "open source" posturing is very annoying. They're just doing it for the PR. Even considering the subset of Android that is "open source" the development process is closed and we just get code drops after product releases. It's like Apple used to do when they were playing the game with Darwin. They're doing a lot of work to avoid and purge LGPL and GPL code so they can work this way. It's not even free to use for vendors, you need to pay licensing fees to get a useful system out of it and sign contracts subjecting you to Google's whims.