Android founder Andy Rubin is stepping down from his position as head of Google’s Android division, the company announced Wednesday.
“Having exceeded even the crazy ambitious goals we dreamed of for Android — and with a really strong leadership team in place — Andy’s decided it’s time to hand over the reins and start a new chapter at Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG),” said Larry Page
In this surprise management switch, Rubin is handing the reins of Android team to Sundar Pichair who serves as company’s head of Chrome and Apps.
Pichair joined Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) in 2004 and helped build and manage Chrome into a service with millions of users to this date.
“Sundar has a talent for creating products that are technically excellent yet easy to use — and he loves a big bet,” Page said. “So while Andy’s a really hard act to follow, I know Sundar will do a tremendous job doubling down on Android as we work to push the ecosystem forward.”
This move depicts Google’s aim to make Android And Chrome OS stronger by growing closer, as they compete with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS and Mac OS.
“The pace of innovation has never been greater, and Android is the most used mobile operating system in the world: we have a global partnership of over 60 manufacturers; more than 750 million devices have been activated globally; and 25 billion apps have now been downloaded from Google Play.”
Although Apple is still ahead of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in the race of smartphones, the overtime success of Android phones has created a duopoly that even a giant like Microsoft is unable to crack.
It appears that merging of two operating systems, both owned by the web search giant, may be a good move by Google as the company has just started to make touch screen laptops.
At the launch event for the Chromebook Pixel last month, Pichai’s explained that : “We’re comfortable at Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) with two viewpoints, and we are doing both.”