Andy Rubin has a dream to take on the company he once worked for.
We’ve known since January that Andy Rubin, whose company Danger was purchased by Google in 2005 to acquire the intellectual property that would later become Android, is coming out with a smartphone.
According to a previous report, Rubin’s new company, Essential, will make a high-end smartphone that would use artificial intelligence as its primary selling feature, along with its ability to speak with other smart home gadgets, presumably also using the same AI engine.
Now, Rubin is showing off that long-rumored phone, and it appears to be running Android. The phone looks like the LG G6, and potentially the Galaxy S8, along with any forthcoming device with slim bezels and a rounded screen. It also clearly shows Android’s cellular connectivity and clock icons in the top right. From the teaser it’s difficult to ascertain any other specifics — we see what looks like an oversized power button to the right of the screen — but according to a tweet from the engineer, he’s “eager to get it in more people’s hands.”
What do you think of the teaser? Could this disrupt the mobile industry the way Android did some ten years ago, or should we have more modest expectations?
