Is Google ready to give up on Android and make the Chrome platform its new priority? That’s the question posed by AppleInsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger in a new report that suggests the search giant is looking to distance itself from the world’s biggest mobile operating system and all of the intellectual property issues that come with it.
But I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. Android’s not going anywhere.
Less than 48 hours after Chromecast was announced and just over two hours since we published a post on how Google’s senior vice president, Sundar Pichai, believes that Google TV will evolve alongside Chromecast, a rumor has emerged claiming that Google is designing yet another TV entertainment device.
It is reported that Google has been secretly working on a new set-top box (STB), and speculation indicates that the new device will be much like the Roku and Apple TV, its been documented that Google’s new unit will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and will feature a ton of goodies which no other STB’s on the market offer at this time.
Did you know that Google’s former head of Android worked at Apple for a few years in the early 90s? Andy Rubin was a manufacturing engineer at Apple from 1989-1992. He still has his old business card, and it looks awesome with the retro Apple logo and unofficial title, “Bad Example.”
Since he moved away from Android to work on other stuff at Google, Rubin has been posting a lot more to Facebook, like the scanned version of the above card. It will be interesting to see what “moonshot” projects he works on next.
Google has separated the mapping and commerce unit headed up by executive Jeff Huber in a “two-part management shift” that also saw Android chief Andy Rubin leave his position on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reports. Huber will now join the Google X unit run by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
It has been reported that Google is working on its own retail stores, but recent comments from the head of Android fly in the face of such a claim. Google’s Andy Rubin talked about the possibility of a Google Store at Mobile World Congress today in Barcelona.
According to Rubin, Google “has no plans” to do any kind of retail store in the near future. That doesn’t mean things won’t change, but Google has thrown cold water on the store rumor for now.
