The Early History of Android Inc. | Generated by AI

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Question: What is the initial story of Android, was the team very small, and when did the project begin?

Answer:

The Android operating system began as a startup project founded in October 2003 in Palo Alto, California, by a small team of four key individuals: Andy Rubin (former co-founder of Danger, known for the T-Mobile Sidekick), Rich Miner, Nick Sears (former VP at T-Mobile), and Chris White (who led interface design at WebTV).

Yes, the initial team was very small—essentially a tiny startup with just these four founders and a handful of early employees. The company, Android Inc., operated secretly at first and faced financial struggles, nearly running out of money and even risking eviction from their office space. Founder Andy Rubin received emergency funding from a friend to keep it going.

Originally, the project aimed to create an advanced operating system for digital cameras, not smartphones. The vision was to build “smarter” devices aware of location and user preferences, with easy cloud connectivity for photos. However, by 2004, the team pivoted to mobile phones after realizing the camera market was declining and investor interest was low.

In 2005, Google acquired Android Inc. for an estimated $50 million. The core team joined Google, where development accelerated using the Linux kernel as the base. This led to the public unveiling in 2007 with the Open Handset Alliance and the first commercial Android phone (HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1) in 2008.

This humble, small-team beginning from a camera OS idea ultimately created the world’s most widely used mobile operating system.

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