Android History

Android Inc. was founded in Silicon Valley, California, in October 2003, with the idea of providing a mobile platform that is more aware of the user’s location and preferences.
Google acquired Android Inc. in August 2005 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Google Inc. Google’s main intention was to provide a fully open platform, backed by Google technologies, for both the users and the application developers.
In November 2007, the Open Handset Alliance was founded as a consortium to develop an open standard for mobile devices. Open Handset Alliance began its journey by announcing the Android platform. In less than a year, new members started joining this consortium.
Android became an open source initiative that is led by Google under Open Handset Alliance’s umbrella. The goal of the Android open source project is to provide an open platform to improve the mobile experience of users. Android is the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.
                       
 Complete:
The Android platform is a robust, secure, easily
upgradable, mobile platform with a comprehensive framework
and well-defined interfaces. It allows application developers to
develop and fully blend their applications into the platform. It
also provides compatibility and certification programs, so
device manufacturers can design highly compliant devices.

 Open:
 The entire Android platform has been developed and
provided under open source Apache licensing terms. Android
does not distinguish between preloaded applications and
third-party applications. Developers have full access to device
features and services while developing applications.

 Free:
 The Android platform does not charge any licensing,
royalty, membership, or certification fees to develop
applications on the platform. Android platform source code
and software development kits are provided free of charge to
application developers. The software development platform is
widely available on many desktop operating systems, allowing
application developers to develop applications using the
operating system of their choice.

Today, Android is one of the major players in mobile phone market. Based on
the recent market analysis, on average, 700 thousand Android devices are
activated daily, and more than 200 million devices are already activated. Android
currently has 48% of the mobile phone market share, and it’s growing rapidly.