Most credit the creation of Android to Andy Rubin, but it’s worth noting that it was actually co-created by Rich Miner, who has been a general partner with Google Ventures since it was formed in 2009. Now, however, it seems as though Miner will be playing a more integral role at Google — as the head of a new education project.
It’s not yet known if the new project will be for-profit or if it will be part of Google’s philanthropic efforts. A report in Fortune, which broke the story, says that Miner finds it difficult to locate “educational apps and other kid-focused internet services that [aren’t] primarily either babysitters or ad delivery devices.”
Google has dipped its toes into education before, especially with its Chromebooks, which have sold extremely well in the education market. It also has suites of apps for education, which use a range of concepts including virtual reality. It will be interesting to see if Miner’s new project involves Chromebooks. Google doesn’t disclose profits in education as a breakout section, however it is clearly quite a large market for the company, and increasingly so.
In fact, the Google for Education site says that Apps for Education has as many as 50 million users, and 10 million teachers and students use Google Classroom, a cloud-based platform that allows teachers to distribute assignments and offer feedback online.
It is important to note, however, that the new project exists within Google, not Google’s parent, Alphabet. What that means is that the project is likely to be an internet-based product. Of course, it is possible that the project could eventually fall under the Alphabet umbrella — Alphabet’s structure as a whole still seems somewhat nebulous.
We’ll keep you posted on the project as we learn more about it.
