Android co-creator Andy Rubin planning his own smartphone company

Andy Rubin, estranged father of the world’s most popular smartphone operating system, is reportedly gearing up to launch his own Android hardware startup. Andy Rubin making smartphones! It could happen!

According to The Information, Rubin has been trying to raise money to start a hardware company to produce phones. As the report points out, the open Android platform is relatively accessible to upstarts.

The report falls more or less in line with other known facts. Rubin “stepped down” from his role as the head of Android development two years ago, under what appeared to be less-than amicable circumstances. He left the company altogether last year to work on hardware startups. Here is a hardware startup.

Literally all we know is “people in the mobile industry say Mr. Rubin has tried to recruit personnel to help build a new phone company.” The news is completely unconfirmed.

Still, it’s exciting to think that the Android legend might be getting into the phone game. He has publicly said before that he’s not leaving it behind forever. Android is his baby. What will he do with it? The OS probably needed to be set free of Rubin to grow, but that doesn’t mean that Rubin isn’t full of great ideas about where it should in the future.