
Android is 5 years old today: Here's how it all began - ForFreedom
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/android-is-5-years-old-today-heres-how-it-all-began-50009685/
======
saurik
Of course, Google purchased Android in 2005; the Open Handset Alliance is 5
years old, not Android.

[http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-08-16/google-
buys-a...](http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-08-16/google-buys-android-
for-its-mobile-arsenal)

For a more complete history, there is an article from 2008 that goes back to
how it all began, only this time starting from 2003, quoting Andy Rubin in an
interview with Business Week before founding Android Inc. that October.

[http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-
communications/mo...](http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-
communications/mobile-phones/a-complete-history-of-android-470327)

------
joezydeco
I remember being at the first meeting of OHA companies at the Googleplex. I
don't recall the meeting going as a democratic group of companies banded
together to change the world. We were all subcontractors helping Andy Rubin
get the project launched.

This article neglects a large piece of the history of the project. Don't
bother reading it.

~~~
chmike
Any better reading to suggest ?

~~~
joezydeco
Saurik's techradar link is a good one, considering it was written shortly
after the OHA announcement was made.

The thing to remember was that iPhone had just been announced and everything
was about to change radically. Even in this 2007-2008 timeframe everything was
about the mobile web. Google's intent for Android - as it was explained to us
- was to get the rest of the planet that didn't own a PC into a mobile device
that they _could_ use to see the web...and see Google's advertising by
consequence. There was no App Store yet. Even _Apple_ was trying to get
everyone to do their apps in Safari, remember?

------
Kurtz79
I think Android went on to fill the same role for mobile devices as Windows
did for the PC.

A platform able to run on a large number of devices, not perfectly tuned to
the hardware as iOS, but very good nonetheless,

Google managed to spot the market opportunity with great timing and went for
it with pretty good execution.

This should have really been Microsoft territory, I wonder if the scenario
will change somehow with Windows Phone 8 ?

~~~
josteink
I see people arguing that with Windows 8, the synergy with WP8, ability to
remotely admin this new class of devices via group policies etc, corporate
will jump on Windows 8 across the line, and somehow it will out of the blue be
a clear contender in what is now a two horse race.

I don't quite buy it though. The place i have seen least enthusiasm for
Windows 8 is in the Enterprise.

------
mtgx
From zero to 75% in 5 years. Not bad. Others are still struggling at 2% after
2 years, with not much chance of improving.

~~~
rogem002
Hopefully Microsoft will stop dragging it's feet with Windows Phone 8. I dred
to think of a mobile market with only two decent OS options.

~~~
wladimir
Having only two is great for developers, though, at least as long as native
apps are preferred by users.

There's a limit to the number of different platforms one can support,
especially if they have their preferred programming languages like Android
with Java and Apple with ObjectiveC, Microsoft with C#... and even worse, they
all have their own UI metaphors, so just porting the code isn't enough. And of
course they all have their own app store with weird rules and specific payment
options.

Edit: and then I'm forgetting the OpenGL versus DirectX debacle that we'll
also get on mobile if MS gets their way. At least now both big platforms use
OpenGL ES. Sometimes I wish that standards actually worked and not everyone
tried to invent their own :/

~~~
tsunamifury
I create several apps on iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows 8, J2ME and Brew.
The idea that it is to hard to do this is simply false.

It is NOT in your best interest to lock yourself into 2 platforms who will
have increasingly less interest in giving you good terms on your iron-clad
developer agreements. I can't believe you'd even think this was a good idea.

~~~
martinced
Can't find any of your "leavesofcode" links : (

I'm sorry but I've professionally worked in the mobile space for years and the
idea that it is _easy_ is simply false. I've done BREW and J2ME you know how
hard it was. Devices weren't "spec compliants" but "examples compliants" (only
a few basic examples would work). Any non-trivial app targetting J2ME devices
required a gigantic QA team and the money needed alone to acquire the various
devices to be able to test your app was sufficient to drive most small players
out of that market.

It was hard on J2ME / Brew because of fragmentation. Then for a few
months/years it was "easy" because _one_ iPhone was the only player in town
and ruling the entire app market. No fragmentation. Things were great.

But now fragmentation is here again: various Android versions, various iPhones
/ iPads / etc. and dealing with all these different devices _is_ a complicated
things.

You cannot say that it is "easy" because you shipped a "todo app" (or
whatever) on these devices.

There are a lot of companies with succesful mobile apps out there stuggling to
solve the fragmentation issue.

Of course you _can_ do it but it's not anywhere near "easy".

So saying "The idea that it is too hard to do is simply false" is quite
misleading.

~~~
tsunamifury
Oh I agree fragmentation within an OS is TERRIBLE. I dont however equate that
with multiple OS's. I hope we continue to have at least 3 if not 4 or 5
healthy players in the smartphone mobile space.

------
jpxxx
Android is the grey goo of operating systems, and it's almost breathtaking to
realize that a dragged-out Linux will close out next year as the single most
relevant and dominant OS on Earth.

The only remaining question mark in my mind: how much might it eventually sell
into the portable PC market? (Beyond the natural cannibalism of mobiles
blunting PC sales)

~~~
Zigurd
_"it's almost breathtaking to realize that a dragged-out Linux will close out
next year as the single most relevant and dominant OS on Earth"_

Two things about that:

1\. The price of admission to the OS business is to come up with a better
kernel than Linux, with better driver support. If that price is higher than
the benefit a new kernel will deliver to end-users, it won't happen.

2\. The center of gravity in OS innovation is in the managed language runtime
and middleware, where Android has done a great job (while Microsoft failed to
capitalize on the userland power of the CLR, MSIL, and C# and other CLR
languages).

~~~
jpxxx
Truth and truth.

