Android Turns 13 Years Old

Google officially introduced its Android mobile operating system on November 5th, 2007, which just so happens to line up with today, so happy 13th birthday, Android. Ryne Hager from Android Police reports: On November 5th, 2007, the "Open Handset Alliance" was revealed after long speculation that Google would enter the smartphone market, following the purchase of a little startup named "Android." Rumors had swirled surrounding a potential "Gphone," but Google quashed them as it announced that Android would be an open platform for anyone. Companies including Motorola, Qualcomm, HTC, and T-Mobile were all on board to help deliver the hardware and partnerships the nascent platform would require.

Google promised that Android would change the status quo, and it definitely delivered, with it now claiming over 72% of the worldwide smartphone market share, according to some recent estimates (if not more). It's the primary vehicle that has allowed billions of people to get online in emerging markets, and it's the reason our site even exists.

Now it's old enough...

[dgatwood]

... to have its own Facebook account!

Re: Now it's old enough...

[t4eXanadu]

Or go to one of Jeffrey Epstein's parties as a masseuse!

October 22, 2008 is when the G1 was released

[chrispix]

I think of a birthday as when the first device shipped, not when it was announced.. That date would have been October 22, 2008 when the G1 shipped/released with Android 1.0

"which just so happens to line up with today"

[greytree]

Felicitations, my child, the day of the year when you were birthed just so happens to line up with the current day of the year.
Yours sincerely,
BeauHD

Not really.

[kamapuaa]

Technically it's 13 years old, but really Google shelved the original Android after the iPhone came out, re-forming it as an imitation of iOS for non-Apple devices. That didn't come out until 2008 - and it wasn't really usable until maybe Android 2.3 in 2010.

Re:Not really.

[thegarbz]

re-forming it as an imitation of iOS for non-Apple devices

Is that why it had a home screen / menu structure that was different to iOS, had supports for Widgets, drop downs, copy and paste, back buttons, app switching buttons, ... actually a lot of buttons there was even a dedicated menu button.

Yeah if they were "imitating" iOS they did a pretty frigging terrible of job it. Fortunately Apple came to help and started adopting some Android features.

Re:Not really.

[AmiMoJo]

Android had a fundamentally different goal to iOS from the very start. It supported multitasking and was designed to be extremely flexible with its "intents" system that allows almost any functionality to be easily replaced.

iOS didn't even support apps at first. There was no app store, just what Apple pre-installed. No multitasking. It was a glorified feature phone at that point. Oxford Dictionary defines a smartphone as "a mobile phone that performs many of the functions of a computer, typically having a touchscreen interface, internet access, and an operating system capable of running downloaded apps", and the original iPhone doesn't meet that definition in several ways.

Re:

[SeanAD]

You're not too familiar with the history of Android, eh?
https://www.engadget.com/2013-... [engadget.com]

Android definitely brought its own elements, but if you don't think Android emulated the iPhone, you should talk to Google's engineers.

Re:

[Errol backfiring]

And it is still not even half as mature as Maemo was.

I Hate My Smartphone!

[BrendaEM]

I don't like that Apple's ecosystem is closed, and there are no MicroSD options. As a musician, I would miss the headphone plug. On, the Android side, the ecosystem is an insecure mess, with too applications, expecting too many privileges. I likely contributed to this too, but I hate that cellphones trained everyone to give up their rights. I also hate my Galaxy Note 8 because long aspect ration makes the phone easy to drop. I also hate my phone because there is no way to protect the rounded corners of the

Re:

[bobthesungeek76036]

Yea I miss the days of Windoze phones where I would go to XDA and download and flash firmware daily...

Android is NOT an Operating System

[Canberra1]

Android is not an Operating System. It is certainly not open, and there is collusion with manufacturers NOT to release drivers or specifications. Finally OS's do not require you to register and accept variable terms or unconditional updates. Then there is the spat with China. And preferential conditional security bugfixes not made available to everyone. Android GO highlights that decent VM and memory paging is too hard, or that it would reveal too much to professional OS programmers. Restricted, Conditional

Re:

[Cmdln Daco]

So by your definitions, Windows and MacOS are not operating systems, either?

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

You think the prophets care about Android or Linux? They don't. All they care about is Bajor.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Android is not an Operating System. It is certainly not open [...] At least the Lineage people are helping abandoned product.

LineageOS wouldn't exist if Android weren't Open, which only actually means interoperable and using documented interfaces. But Android is also Open Source, which means you can see the source; further, its Open Source license permits use.

Could you be more wrong?

That nice

[ClueHammer]

It a pity that the devices themselves are long since dead, as the manufacturers rarely allow you up upgrade beyond the version provided initially. Leading the millions of devices in landfill simply because they cannot run the later versions.So perhaps cerebrating a birthday is in error. We should be holding a massive wake for all the devices that have given their lives in vain and where tossed aside when a newer version was released.

Why Android exists

[Malays2 bowman]

Because iOS was a locked down nightmare that was first released at a time when people still didn't accept being micromanaged and told what they could do with their own devices by corporations. Also, no copy/paste back then.

But that was 13 years ago. People now just happily accept the reaming, and it's getting to be a rare exception when a company does NOT abuse their users in this way.

Yes, Android is slowly becoming the same way. Expect the sideloading option to disappear in the not too distant future.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

No, it came about because Google saw the future and realized that it likely involved Apple as gatekeeper.

Cellphones were locked down back then. Apps were unheard of - if you had an app store, you were lucky - and they were limited to whatever developer decided to write an app for your specific phone and made deals with the carrier, so you maybe had 5 apps in total. It's how some companies like Glu Mobile made their money in the beginning - they wrote games and made deals with carriers to have their games di

I knew there was a reason ...

[Anne Thwacks]

Why it behave so badly!