android history & importance

Android: Brief History

by Lope Emano

Android Home Screen Evolution

Brief History

On October 2003, Android, Inc. was founded in Palo Alto, California by Andy Rubin

On August 17, 2005, Google acquired Android Inc.

On November 5, 2007, the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of technology companies, wireless carriers, and chipset makers, unveiled itself with a goal to develop open standards for mobile devices. Android was unveiled as its first product.

Open Handset Alliance

On October 22, 2008, The first commercially available smartphone running Android was the HTC Dream.

HTC Dream

Also known as the T-Mobile G1

“Android Alpha” or Android 1.0

320 x 480 pixels, 3.2 inches (~180 ppi pixel density)

Had a trackball

Physical keyboard

~500 MHz

3.15 Megapixel Camera

Starting v1.5, each major release is named in alphabetical order after a dessert or sugary treat

Android Version Distribution, July 2014

At Google I/O 2014, the company revealed that there were over 1 billion active monthly Android users, up

from 538 million in June 2013

What we’ve learned

Android is big and still growing

Android Developers need to adapt fast with new and different versions coming every year

Supporting multiple versions, devices, screen sizes can be a pain.

References:

● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_%28operating_system%29

● https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html?utm_source=ausdroid.net

● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Dream