The Android Story: How It Evolved Over The Years

The journey of Google’s OS from Android 1.0 to Android 9.0 over the past decade is a highly interesting one. Since Apple debuted the first ever iOS in 2007, the smartphone domain has evolved phenomenally. Though Apple’s iOS became the forerunner, Google’s Android became a game changer very soon emerging as the most popular OS by finding place on most mobiles across the world. The first version of Android was released in 2008 on T-Mobile device made by HTC.

The roots stretch down farther

The history of Android actually dates back to earlier times that it was made available on smartphones. It was Andy Rubin who created Android in 2003 for powering the digital cameras. The company Android Inc. was established in 2003 in Palo Alto, California. The founders of the firm were Rich Miner, Nick Sears, Chris White, and Andy Rubin. Envisioning about his brainchild Android during the start of the company, Andy Rubin said that their firm Android Inc. will develop “smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner’s location and preferences.”

Android originally ventured to enhance the OS of digital cameras. In 2004, the company showed the investors how Android can help connect the camera wirelessly to a PC. Eventually the PC will connect to Android Datacenter where the camera owners were able to store their photos on a cloud based online server.

Very soon, the market for the standalone digital cameras was seen dwindling and the maker of the OS realized that the camera market in front of the Android is not that big. Hence he shifted his attention towards smartphones. While talking to the press on an occasion in 2013, Rubin remembered, “The exact same platform, the exact same operating system we built for cameras, that became Android for cellphones.”

Google purchased Android in 2005 and Rabin and his other associates who founded the company stayed on with Google. Till this year the OS was scarcely known by the public. When Google entered the smartphone business, it made a start by marketing Android to other manufacturers. Android hit the world of users on HTC in 2008 through HTC Dream. Google and the Android tam was willing to give away Android to the mobile phone manufacturers free of cost. They felt they can make profits by offering their services that used the OS like the several apps that came out eventually.

Android’s early versions

From the beginning, Google followed a tradition of naming its Android versions after some American sweets making the first letter of every next release in the alphabetical order. Here are the names of the earlier versions of Android.

Android 1.5: Android Cupcake

Android 1.6: Android Donut

Android 2.0: Android Eclair

Android 2.2: Android Froyo

Android 2.3: Android Gingerbread

Android 3.0: Android Honeycomb

Android 4.0: Android Ice Cream Sandwich

Android 4.1 to 4.3.1: Android Jelly Bean

Android 4.4 to 4.4.4: Android KitKat

Android 5.0 to 5.1.1: Android Lollipop

Android 6.0 to 6.0.1: Android Marshmallow

Android 7.0 to 7.1: Android Nougat

Android 8.0 to Android 8.1: Android Oreo

Android 9.0: Android Pie

The road ahead

The next avatar of Android will escape from tradition of being named after desserts and will be simply called as Android 10 for easy accessibility and remembering. A lot has evolved over the decade of Android’s journey and the role of this most wonderful platform in revolutionizing the smartphone user experience cannot be underestimated.