These 3 guys quit Google, but their new startup shows they still love Android

Xiaomi isn’t the only company making good use of Android paired with cheap hardware. Also located in Beijing is a startup run by three ex-Googlers, which has now grown to over 100 staffers on the basis of two hugely popular Kickstarter campaigns for its Android-based gadgets.

David Ko, one of the co-founders of Jide, sees Android as the platform to rule them all. “The next generation of Android, I think, is not just one company that can do it – it’s actually a community effort,” he says.

Jide Tech team: (L-R) Jeremy Chau, David Ko, Ben Luk.

And that’s why Ko’s startup has its own version of Android called Remix OS, which evolves in a collaborative way. He sees every buyer of the firm’s two gadgets, the Remix Mini PC and Remix Ultratablet, as sort of employees who’ll make a contribution to the direction of its flavor of Android. “We want to work with them and let them give us guidance and tell us what they want,” he adds.

Cheaper

One popular feature request for Remix OS in recent months was a file manager app, a bit like in OS X or Windows, to make the gadgets more powerful in the “getting stuff done” sense. And so the team baked a file manager into the OS, which will be rolled out with Remix OS 2 in October once the Mini, the newer gadget, is ready to ship to its early Kickstarter backers.

That feature addition makes sense because Ko and crew see their two creations as affordable ways for people to be productive without paying for a full-on Windows or Mac laptop or PC, which can run to well over US$1,000. That’s why the Remix Mini, which is now on Kickstarter, costs just US$30 (that’s the cheapest crowdfunding deal now available), though you’ll have to supply your own screen and keyboard to go with the tiny PC, which is barely any bigger than a computer mouse.

“There is no reason to build a computer that is US$500 or even a thousand dollars just for checking email or browsing the web,” he says. Even though everyone’s talking about shifting to a mobile-first or mobile-only internet, a lot of people still prefer to get stuff done with a proper keyboard and maybe a mouse. “People have to resort to the PC for productivity – but that doesn’t make sense,” Ko says. So the startup wants to merge the get-stuff-done of the PC with the fun and entertainment of a mobile – and do that for a lot less money than either would normally cost.

Although the PC industry is shrinking at an alarming rate, it’s an idea that makes a lot of sense. People seem happy to pay for svelte phones that they replace every two or three years, but a laptop or a PC is a dull and unsatisfying purchase, like when you have to get a new washing machine because your old one looks and smells like it’s about to explode. But PCs are still useful; some people really need them. So make them a hell of a lot cheaper.

Microsoft has wisened to that fact with Windows 10, slimming down its behemoth OS so that it should run smoothly on laptops or hybrids that cost as little as US$100. But Ko thinks the appeal of Android and all its apps can win out.

Second Kickstarter

Now that the startup team has its own Android remix and a growing community behind it, it sounds like the next step might be to emulate the popular Xiaomi by building a phone. That’s how Xiaomi started in 2011, a year after creating its MIUI Android skin. “We will wait and see,” Ko says. “We want to focus on the operating system itself.”

While a smartphone is not on the roadmap, the team is looking into building its own web services for the OS.

Another focus is shipping its second gadget in time. The Mini has so far raised nearly US$1.4 million on Kickstarter – from a goal of US$50,000 – and is due to be delivered in October, coinciding with the Remix OS 2 upgrade. That explosive popularity means Jide is the first Chinese startup to break a million bucks on the crowdfunding site.

China shift