Happy 7th Birthday, Android (and Phandroid)!
Last month we celebrated the T-Mobile G1’s (the very first Android phone) 6 year anniversary, but Android didn’t get its start on that date. It was November 5th, 2007 when Google’s Open Handset Alliance officially announced the infant mobile operating system from visionary Andy Rubin (who has since left the Android team and Google to pursue other passions). Rubin had actually been working on the operating system since 2003, and he and his team were courted by Google in 2005 to lead up to its coming out party in the two years to follow. Here were some of his original words on the announcement way back when:
Despite all of the very interesting speculation over the last few months, we’re not announcing a Gphone. However, we think what we are announcing — the Open Handset Alliance and Android — is more significant and ambitious than a single phone. In fact, through the joint efforts of the members of the Open Handset Alliance, we hope Android will be the foundation for many new phones and will create an entirely new mobile experience for users, with new applications and new capabilities we can’t imagine today.
He couldn’t have been any more spot on, save for the fact that it became far bigger than even their wildest imagination and expectation. No one quite knew what to expect from Android when Google first got their hands on it, but considering the Mountain View company’s success in other areas to that point many knew it had the potential to turn out to be something special.
And that’s why Phandroid was born on the very same day. We take great pride in the fact that we share a birthday with Android. As the very first publication to exclusively report Android news, Phandroid shares a very deep connection with Android and everything surrounding it.
We’ve covered all angles of the platform exhaustively for 7 long years to date. We’ve watched it grow from a stumbling baby of a phone operating system into a stable, mature and beautiful platform used on everything from watches and televisions to washing machines and eye glasses. We’ve also harbored one of the biggest and most passionate community of Android enthusiasts over at AndroidForums.com and couldn’t be more excited to share that moment with them.
It’s been quite the journey, and the craziest part is it’s only just begun. We hope for many more years of innovation and excitement as long as Android stays as relevant as it’s always been.
We can’t imagine anyone knew Google would be able to beat the likes of Apple, Blackberry and Microsoft in the smartphone arena, but they did, and they did so in a convincing fashion by controlling a vast majority of the worldwide market share for many consecutive months and years.
While it may be true that the iPhone and iOS inspired a bit of Android’s transformation to a touch-oriented operating system from one controlled solely by a keyboard and trackball, it was the openness and freedom Android provided for manufacturers to create any device they want that would go on to continue to shape the smartphone industry into what it is today. Heck, even Apple is beginning to get on board with ideas from some of Android’s most major manufacturers.
And things are stronger and better than ever. We’ve got three hot new Nexus devices launching for the holiday seasons, and Google’s biggest system upgrade yet is beginning to create the sort of excitement and buzz that only Android seems to be able to create. We can’t see things slowing down anytime soon, so be sure to wish Android a happy birthday on this fine afternoon and look forward to many, many more!