Andy Rubin wasn't ready to retire when he left Google in 2014. He certainly could have: After an illustrious career developing some of the most innovative products in tech, he had all the wealth and accolades anyone could want. As an engineer at the Apple spinoff General Magic, he built some of the world's first internet-connected portable devices. As CEO at Danger, he created the Sidekick, a smartphone that defined the category before anyone had invented the term. And then, of course, Rubin created Android, the operating system found in more than two billion phones, televisions, cars, and watches.

But Rubin wasn't done. More to the point, he couldn't be done. Ask around, and everyone says the same thing: Andy Rubin sees the future, and can't sit around waiting for it to arrive. He's spent the past few years watching Apple and Google and everyone else try to rule the world from walled gardens, and he considers that a dead end. Rubin has always believed that the open platform is the one that wins.

Most people complain that there's no innovation in smartphones. Andy Rubin disagrees. Vehemently.

And so he's back, as the CEO of Essential Products, his first company since Android. He wants to make Essential the first great gadget maker since Apple, one that builds and distributes the open platform that will power the billions of phones, watches, light bulbs, and toaster ovens about to come online.

That wasn't always the plan. Rubin likes telling a story from just after he left Google, where he spent a decade running Android and a few years leading its robotics projects. Over dinner and wine, he and his wife, Rie, discussed his next move. "How do I top Android?" Rubin asked. "What could I possibly do that would be bigger than that?" "Don't do one thing," Rie replied. "Do 10." And so Rubin launched Playground, a venture capital firm where a few dozen engineers and designers at Playground Studios help startups build stuff.

Rubin and his partners sought out a wide range of investments. "You meet a ton of people, thousands of people," he says. "Some really crazy ideas, some pretty good ideas, some teams that are great, some teams that are not that great." As he speaks, Rubin curls his lanky body into a comfortable chair at the head of a long table in the same room where he met many of those people. He fidgets as he talks and touches his stubbled face as he thinks. Now and then, he walks over to the whiteboard to diagram his points. "We thought that people weren't swinging for the fences and doing big-vision things in consumer products," he says. All of which is to say, there hasn't been an Apple since Apple, and Rubin figures it's time.

Essential launches publicly today with the announcement of two products expected later this summer: a $699 smartphone called Phone and a smart-home hub called Home that Rubin hopes will bring order to the endless standards, protocols, and systems wrought by the Internet of Things. To understand what Essential hopes to achieve in the long term, look at the hub. Rubin wants to build an open source, infinitely extensible platform, called Ambient OS, that powers all the smart stuff in your home. Android for everything. But even Rubin concedes that it will take a while. If you want to know how he plans on getting there, we need to talk about the Phone.

Carlos Chavarría for WIRED

Take a Bite

Most people look at smartphones and see one of the largest and most competitive markets in history, one with no room (or profits) for anyone but Apple or Samsung. And most people complain that there's no innovation. Rubin disagrees. Vehemently. He sees loads of innovation, but believes companies don't take advantage of it because they're simply too big. "When Apple finds some new technology, they're like, 'Great, can I have 50 million next quarter?' Manufacturers are like, 'No, you can't. We just invented it,'" he says. Meanwhile, companies design by committee—with too much input from supply chain experts and accountants—and everything moves slowly.

If Essential sells 50 million phones this quarter, Jason Keats, the company's head of product architecture, is totally screwed. Essential simply cannot produce that many phones. That's the point. "We've gone after technologies and methods of manufacturing that aren't designed to support 50 million devices," he says. He wants Essential to think like a high-end watchmaker, not a commodity gadget builder. (Granted, everyone says this, even the commodity gadget builders.) From the start, Essential's designers and engineers met with countless manufacturers in search of the most interesting technology and materials, especially stuff no one could produce at scale. "We're not for everybody," Keats says. "You know it's going to be a little exclusive."

Gadgets used to say something about their buyers, communicating fashion sense or nerd cred. Now that everyone has an iPhone or a Galaxy, neither say anything.

Everybody at Essential hates the idea that you, your grandma, and your accountant all carry the same phone. Gadgets once said something about the people who carried them. They communicated fashion sense or nerd cred. Now they're as personal as refrigerators. Rubin wants the Essential phone to clearly and emphatically state that the person carrying it isn't won over by marketing, isn't a fanboy, isn't driven by trends. +++inset-left

Jason Keats, Essential's head of hardware architecture and noted prototyping enthusiast. Carlos Chavarria for WIRED